Whispers in the Dark
by Sage Londyn
Summary: Cory returned to Rosewood after being gone for over a year. After a stint in rehab and the disappearance of her mom; she's looking forward to reconnecting with her old friends, but when 'A' starts bringing up her painful, buried secrets -all she wants is to get away. That is until an old flame resurfaces and she's forced to deal with her past and how much has changed. Jason/OC
1. Back to Rosewood

**Whispers in the Dark**

**- Chapter One -**

* * *

><p><strong>~(Months ago)~<strong>

"Have you spoken to any of the DiLaurentis family?" Austin asked his daughter quietly as they moved through the crowd starting to gather outside of the church for Alison's funeral.

"You mean have I spoken to Jason?" Cory sighed the correction, then shook her head, "No dad, not since we moved away from here… you know that."

He nodded, looking over at her and wanting to explain how he'd only banned her from contacting him a year ago for her own good but he knew today wasn't the day for that –today his daughter was having to bury one of her best friends.

"Wow… there are so many people here." She breathed, looking around to see everyone dressed in black, "It's not like they all even knew her."

"Well honey, I think everyone in the community just wants to pay their respects." He assured her, pausing as he saw one of the reporters taking interviews with some of Rosewood's residents as they entered the church, nodding he reasoned, "Or get their fifteen minutes of fame on the local news."

Just as they reached the front steps they saw Emily with her parents, the girls hugged while their parents caught up some as Spencer's family also joined them. None of their parents wanting to admit it out loud, but silently thankful that it wasn't their daughter laying in the coffin.

"Ready for this?" Spencer asked as she stepped back from hugging Cory with a longing smile at how much she'd missed her since her friend moved away not long after Alison had gone missing the year before.

"I don't think I'll ever be ready to do this." She admitted, looking over to Emily who appeared to be on the verge of tears.

"I don't think I can even go in there… I mean after the service, they're going to put her in the ground and then it's really over, you know?" Emily whispered to them, her hands shaking down by her sides.

Reaching over Cory grabbed onto her hand and said, "I know, but we have to do this."

"For Ali." Spencer agreed as she stepped in front of them and opened the doors; allowing her friends to walk into the building ahead of her.

They had a short talk and exchanged hugs with Alison's mother, before she instructed them to sit up front because she knew that's what her daughter would have wanted.

The trio started their way towards the front pew, but the closer Cory got to the very front of the church where Alison's casket was, the harder it became to get her legs to move. Every step felt like she was trying to wade through quick sand. Not only because of losing her friend, but this was the same church that her little brother's funeral had been in.

Her mind drifted back to that day and how Alison had been by her side the entire time, either because she knew Cory needed her or to make sure that she kept their secret. Either way, she couldn't have made it through that day without her and now she was having to come to terms with the fact that her friend would never be there to help her ever again.

After they took their seats, Hanna found them and soon after Aria joined the group as they all sat in silence and stared at the large array of flower displays and the picture of Alison displayed next to the casket.

"Poor Ali." Emily finally broke the silence, almost causing her friends to jump.

Looking over her shoulder and around at the quickly filling pews, Hanna softly smiled, "Can you believe what a scene this is?"

With watery eyes, Aria stared straight ahead as she agreed, "Alison would have loved it."

"Popular in life and death." Spencer added on as she also surveyed the crowd.

Unable to pull her eyes away from the casket, Cory managed a smile as she recalled Alison's own words and said, "That's immortality my darlings."

They all silently smiled at the memories of their late friend, until the somber mood took over again and they looked around. Not sure how to feel in those moments.

People always say that the hardest part is not knowing –not knowing if someone is dead or alive, without that answer there can be no closure. But now that they had the answer, it was debatable if that was the truth or not –because now all hope was gone. Alison DiLaurentis was really _gone_.

Cory looked over to Spencer as she thought of how if she knew what Cory was thinking she'd tell her that hope breeds eternal misery.

"What?" She whispered at catching her friend staring at her.

"Nothing, just thinking." Cory replied.

"Thinking is kind of the last thing I want to do today." Hanna breathed as she opened up her small purse and pulled a flask out, she looked at her friends then noticed that Emily seemed the most upset out of them all.

Reaching over she offered her the flask.

Emily's eyes widened, "Oh, no thanks… I don't-"

"Today I think you do." The blonde argued, and Emily took the flask from her but didn't open it when Aria's phone buzzed from her purse.

"Anyone we know?" Hanna questioned as Aria opened her phone and checked the message.

"Uh, no, it's just my mom… sending me a text." She lied, as she reread the message from A.

When Hanna and spencer continued to stare at her she realized they could see straight through her lie, which meant they were getting A messages as well.

"Cory, Emily and I aren't the only ones who got messages from A, are we?" She breathed out in a hushed whisper, staring at them wide-eyed.

The night before Emily and Aria had met Cory at the hotel she and her dad were staying at after their flight landed and the girls had all three learned they weren't the only ones being taunted by A.

To Cory it had felt like the moment she'd stepped off the plan, the harassing texts started up.

Her friend's silence was the only answer she needed as Hanna shifted around in her seat before looking over her shoulder and gasping, "Oh my god… it's Jenna."

They group of five continued to stare as Jenna was led to an open spot and sat down, their concentration was broken when they all had to scoot over to allow room for Alison's mother and father to sit down in the same row as them.

"Did you see that Jenna Marhsall was here? I didn't realize she and Ali were friends." Mrs. DiLaurentis quietly whispered to the group of friends.

"They weren't." Spencer filled her in.

**~()~**

After the service, the group headed outside; all of them in some dire need of fresh air after sitting through the funeral.

They'd barely made it down the steps when they heard someone call out, "Emily, Spencer, Aria, and Hanna…"

When the group turned around the man looked at her before questioning, "Cory Blackwell?"

"Who are you?" Cory shot back, noticing he was dressed in a suit like he'd just attended the funeral, but she didn't remember seeing him inside.

"I'm Detective Wilden. I understand you were all good friends with the victim?"

"Yeah, we were." Aria nodded looking over the card he'd handed to Spencer.

"I'm going to need to talk to each one of you." He asserted, looking them over.

"We talked to the police when Alison went missing." Spencer argued with him and Cory nodded her head in agreement.

"And I intend to go over every one of your statements. This is no longer a missing person's investigation, it's a homicide. Rest assured I will find out what happened that summer." He said before nodding to them, and turning to walk away. They stood in silence as they watched him disappear into the crowd of patrons leaving the church.

"Do you think he knows about the Jenna thing?" Aria started to ask.

"No! How could he?" Hanna quickly silenced her.

Just then all of their phones went off with a text message, and they had a pretty good idea who it was going to be from before they opened it.

"Oh my god…" Cory breathed as she read the message.

"It's from…" Hanna began to say.

"Yeah, I got one too." Emily agreed.

"I'm still here, bitches… and I know everything. –A" Spencer read out loud, and everyone else nodded with their faces a few shades paler than moments before.

"How is this even possible?" Aria breathed, but none of her friends had an answer for her. None of them even had a clue who A was now that they knew without a doubt that Alison was gone.

"You guys have to call me and let me know what happens with the police." Cory urged as she faced her friends.

"You really have to leave tomorrow?" Emily asked her face contorted with pain after saying goodbye to one of their friends forever, now she was having to say goodbye to another who was only back in Rosewood long enough for the funeral.

"I thought you said on the phone that your dad was looking into houses here…" Aria asked with raised eyebrows.

"He is… but right now it took everything we had to pay for the return trip flight here for the funeral, until they unfreeze all of the accounts we're essentially broke." She sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"So they still have no idea what happened with your mom?" Hanna's voice was so quiet, it was hard to hear her over the sounds of traffic leaving the church.

"Other than the fact that they think my dad had something to do with my mom disappearing on the cruise… no. He obviously doesn't know anything, but since the IRS looked into my mom's finances from her company they started suspecting she was embezzling money. They've questioned me about a thousand times and my dad even more that that." Cory admitted biting down on her bottom lip as she looked around between them.

"But she didn't do that, right?" Emily asked.

"I don't know." Cory shrugged, before she pinned her eyes shut and breathed, "All I know is that everything is a mess right now, I'm burying one of my best friends and ever since I stepped foot back in Rosewood some freak has been sending me messages, acting like they're Ali. Honestly, at this rate guys… I don't even know if I want to move back."

"You have too!" Aria said reaching out and giving her friend's arm a supportive squeeze as Emily nodded in agreement, "You have to keep talking your dad into letting you move back, we need you."

* * *

><p><strong>~(Present time- months later)~<strong>

"You want to grab dinner or something?" Austin asked his daughter as he walked into the living room to see Cory setting up some family pictures on top of the fire place.

"No thanks, the girls are on their way over and they're going to help me unpack." She said with a smile.

He arched a brow at his daughter, "We've been back here for nearly a month and you still haven't unpacked?"

She laughed, "No, dad. I haven't had time, I've been throwing myself into school work and helping Hanna run lines for a play she wants to audition for… even though she refuses to read the entire script."

He shook his head, but smiled at her. it was good seeing her that happy; which seemed to be a rare occurrence ever since the death of her little brother and once her mom had gone missing –she never really smiled anymore.

Cory looked down avoiding his eyes as she thought of how much everything in her life was complete chaos now, her friends were convinced that Ian Thomas had killed Alison DiLaurentis, and after they'd showed her the video of them in the woods at the kissing rock –she was pretty sure he was the one responsible as well.

Aria Montgomery was in a secret relationship with Mr. Fitz and Emily Fields was still struggling with being openly gay and the backlash she'd gotten from her mom about it.

Hanna Marin, was currently letting Caleb Rivers crash in her basement and trying to hide it from her mom and Spencer had to deal with the fact that her older sister Melissa was with Ian and living in her backyard.

Every single one of her friends were being threatened and blackmailed by text messages from "A" about their own secrets, and even though Cory hadn't gotten once since she went back to Ohio after her friend's funeral she had a feeling the anonymous bully was going to come at her full force.

As much as she hated to see her friends being taunted by A; a small selfish part of her was also a little relieved that she wasn't being targeted at the moment. While her friend's secrets could do some damage if they got out, her secret could land her in prison –not to mention probably disowned from what family she had left.

After her dad left, she started to text her friends to make sure they were still coming over but before she could there was a strange sound coming from the backyard.

Her eyebrows lowered in confusion as she entered the kitchen and made her way over to the doors, "Hello?" Cory called out into the darkness of her large backyard as she opened the French style doors and looked around. When she was met by silence she wasn't sure if she should be relieved or worried. Stepping back inside and quickly locating the light switch, she flipped it on illuminating the yard.

After still not seeing any reason for the thudding noise she'd heard moments before, she started to turn and go inside when a gust of wind blew and she heard a flapping sound. Spinning around she saw it was just the edge of the pool cover blowing in the wind.

Letting out a relieved sigh she walked over and pinned it back down, but she'd barely gotten stood up when her phone went off from her pocket. Her first thought was that it must be her friends, but when she looked at the screen she saw it was a text from a blocked number.

Her stomach was in knots, the last time she'd gotten a text from a blocked number was when she'd came back to town for Alison's funeral. She'd hoped and prayed that –that would be the last ones she'd ever get.

'_I'm surprised your dad bought a house with a pool… Your brother's body may have been buried, but your secrets never were. Welcome home. -A'_

With a gasp she raised her head and looked around, now all too aware of the feeling that she was being watched.

Rushing back into the house, she slammed the doors shut and locked them behind her before pushing her face against the glass to look out into the backyard –still no sign of anyone else.

Tears burnt her eyes until she pinned them shut and shook her head. It was impossible, there was no way that A could stand for Alison, she was dead; but…Alison was the only one who knew the truth.

**~(Flashback)~**

"_Cory, what the hell is going on? You were so frantic I could barely understand you over the phone…" Alison's voice trailed off as she saw her friend sitting on the deck next to the in ground pool with her knees pulled up to her chest. Not that far away from where she was sitting was the motionless body of her seven year old bother, Ryan._

"_Oh my god!" Alison yelled as she rushed over and dropped to the ground beside them, tears falling down her own cheeks as she gasped, "W-what happened?"_

"_I was supposed to be watching him… but I left once he fell asleep." The brunette continued to sob, mascara staining her tear dampened cheeks, "I guess I didn't lock the back door."_

_Her forehead lined with confusion as she pointed out, "But your brother was an okay-enough swimmer to at least keep his head above water until you could find him."_

_Lowering her head, Cory cried even louder causing her entire body to shake as she pulled in deep, gasping breaths._

"_I didn't know he was in the pool, Ali. I came home and I saw the pool cover was off… I didn't see him in the water. Oh my god, how could I have missed that!" She cried, her voice loud as she made some gagging noises like she could throw up at any second._

_Alison looked over to where the switch for the electrical pool cover was just outside of the door and her eyes widened as she realized exactly what had happened. Cory had inadvertently killed her own brother._

"_We have to call 911!" _

"_No, no, no. Hold on." Alison yelled as she grabbed her friends arm and stopped her, "We have to be smart about this… even with the chlorine from the pool I can still smell the alcohol on you from here."_

_Cory's head lowered in shame but she closed her eyes before they fell on her brother's body again._

"_You go upstairs, get cleaned up and I'll… I'll take care of this, okay?" _

_The brunette helplessly nodded, tucking her tangled hair behind her ears. All she wanted to do was call the police and tell them what she'd done, but she also knew she wasn't thinking clearly. For the time being she was going to have to trust her best friend._

_After cleaning up and changing clothes, Cory raced down stairs at the sounds of glass shattering to find Alison destroying the living room._

"_What are you doing?" she shouted, stopping her as she was trying to knock the TV stand over._

"_Think about it, Cor. You're going to have way too many questions to answer otherwise. I already destroyed the computer that the security system is fed into so that there wouldn't be video evidence of what you've done." Picking her bag up from the couch she opened to reveal almost all of Cory's mother's expensive jewelry, "And we'll get these out of the house so it looks like a robbery… while the house was being ransacked, your little brother ran outside and fell in the pool. It was an accident and you were barricaded in your room, on the phone with the police."_

_Cory's mind raced to try and understand everything and exactly what her friend was saying about her cover story._

_After Alison broke the glass of the back door to make it look like someone broke in, she said, "I'm going to take the jewelry with me, we can figure out what to do with it tomorrow. What you need to do now is…" Her voice cracked as she pinned her eyes shut and slowly opened them, "Put your brother back in the pool, go up to your room lock the door with a chair against the handle like you're trying to keep someone out and call the police to say someone broke in. Be convincing and let them find Ryan."_

"_What?" Cory gasped, wrapped her arms around herself and crying with such force that her ribs were aching, "I can't… I can't put him back in the pool… Ali, no…. I can't."_

"_You have to!" she yelled, taking her friend's face in her hands as she continued, "Do this and no one will ever have to know what happened. It will be our little secret." A few tears slid down her face as she leaned forward with her forehead resting against Cory's as she whispered, "And remember what I said about secrets; they're what keep us so close."_

**~(End of flashback)~**

Cory sat down on her bed with a smile on her face as she waved bye to three of her four best friends who had just helped her unpack her boxes and set up her room in record time. Aria was staying the night with her after seeing how shaken up she was when they'd gotten to her house.

There was a lot going on, most of which Cory had found out through the long phone conversations she'd shared with all of them while still living in Ohio, but now she was back in Rosewood for good and it felt nice to finally be having conversations with them face-to-face.

It was already a few months into the school year, but she was adjusting nicely and she had to admit it felt pretty amazing to be back with her friends, even if one of them wasn't there. She missed Alison every single day, some days were harder than others –being back in Rosewood made it especially hard because every place she drove past held memories of her and Alison. But she knew with other four besties she'd be able to make it through.

Aria came back into the room dressed in her pajamas and Cory jumped up offering to make them some hot chocolate.

She returned minutes later and handed her friend the warm glass mug, which Aria smiled appreciatively for and immediately took a drink.

"Thanks for staying over." Cory said, taking a sip from her own glass.

"No problem, I know what it feels like after A strikes… you just don't feel safe." She sympathized before asking, "What was the text you got about?"

"Oh, uh… it's kind of personal." She whispered, taking a drink as an excuse to not use her mouth for talking.

"So was the stuff that happened with me… but you know about that now." She reasoned, looking at her friend as she raised her own glass to her lips.

"It's different… if my secret got out, I could be in a lot of trouble." Cory argued, refusing to spill anymore details.

Aria looked around the room before quietly whispering, "If everyone found out about me and Ezra… he could go to jail."

"Yeah, but Aria… if my secret got out, I could be the one who goes to jail." She whispered back, tears stinging her hazel eyes as she tucked her brunette hair behind her ears.

Aria's entire face twisted with confusion as she nodded and decided to not push her any further, but now she was also dying to know what her secret was.

"I wish you could have seen Ali's memorial before it got destroyed." She said, trying to change the subject.

Cory nodded, "You guys sent me all those pictures of it… but I would have loved to have seen it in person." Clearing her throat and trying to act nonchalant about her next question she asked, "You said Jason came back for the memorial right? How was he?"

"As good as someone can be after losing a family member, I guess. None of us really spoke to him much." Aria filled her in, as she looked around wondering what color her friend would paint her walls in her new room.

"Did he seem… different?" Cory pushed.

"Well, he finally gave up the weed." Aria laughed, then shrugged, "Not that I have much to compare it to… I mean none of us really ever knew Jason, we barely even knew he existed. He was just Ali's big brother down the hall."

"Right." Cory agreed with a laugh, but it wasn't the truth.

What happened to her little brother wasn't the only thing she'd kept from her friends. She also had a history with Jason DiLaurentis –a complicated, messy history that almost destroyed her at one point.

Aria continued to talk about the memorial and Cory smiled and nodded but her thoughts were no longer in the room. She was thinking back to her first real encounter with Jason and wondered if she'd known how much it would have changed her life, if she'd have done something different. Avoided him at all costs, or at the very least never started going to the crazy parties he threw.

At the time she thought she could stay in control, but the more her world got turned upside down the more she relied on the drugs and alcohol to make it through the days. Her bad habits and addiction followed her long after her family moved away from Rosewood and it had been over a year since she'd had any contact with Jason.

Drinking down the last of her hot chocolate, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and swallowed hard. Pinning her eyes shut, she tried to focus on the sound of her friend's voice, but it was useless all she could think about now was the moment that changed her life –possibly for the worst.

**~(Flashback)~**

"_Wow…" Alison breathed as she stood back and watched Cory turn from side to side seeing how the new shirt looked on her._

"_Good wow or bad wow?" Cory questioned spinning around to face her._

"_Good wow, definitely. I know I bought that shirt for me but you should just keep it." Her eyes fell down to where her friend's cleavage was on display in the tight, revealing shirt as she added, "You actually fill it out better than me."_

_Cory's eyes widened as she caught the glimpse of jealousy in Alison's eyes, quickly pulling the shirt off her hair fell messily down onto her shoulders as she nervously laughed, "No way, Ali. You were a total bombshell in this shirt, I can't keep it."_

"_What's wrong, Cor? Don't you like my taste in clothes?" She asked, her head cocked to the side and her eyes intense as she waited on a response._

"_Of course I do…"_

"_Then what's the problem, hun? Keep it. I'll just borrow something of yours." She asserted as she spun to face her bed where the shopping bags from their mall trip were scattered, her blonde ponytail bouncing with her every movement. Glancing over her shoulder she looked at her friend standing there in just her favorite destroyed denim jeans and her bra. "I love shopping with you the best."_

"_Really?" Cory asked with a smile as she continued to hold the new shirt down at her side._

"_Of course. We buy such similar styles and we've got the bodies to actually fill the clothes out." Alison said, causing her friend to shift uncomfortably as she added, "Spencer always dresses like she's going for a job interview and let's face it, about the only thing she has going for her are her Hasting legs. Hanna's clothes would swallow us whole-"_

"_Ali!"_

"_What? You know it's true and Aria's going through the that whole goth phase." She paused for a moment before continuing, "Emily sort of dresses tom-boyish, don't you think?"_

"_I, uh… I guess." Cory breathed, afraid if she said the wrong thing Alison would go tell their friends, but equally afraid if she didn't agree it would anger her. It felt like a lose/lose situation._

_After dumping the last bag of new clothes out on her bed she sighed at not seeing anything to take in exchange for the shirt she was giving to Cory. Then her eyes drifted over to the vent cover in her room that she used as a hiding place and a smirk took over her pink glossed lips._

_Seeing her friend's irritation with their shopping haul Cory quickly walked over and offered out the shirt as she reasoned, "You should keep it, it's not really my color…"_

"_Are you kidding? It's exactly your color."_

"_Yeah, but you didn't find anything else in my bags that you liked."_

"_Put the shirt back on." Alison ordered, before she smiled and continued, "You can keep it, I have another way for you to pay me back…"_

_After the shirt was back on, Alison stepped forward and smoothed her friend's hair back down as Cory complained, "I really don't like the sound of this…"_

_Rolling her eyes she argued, "It's not a big deal, I just need to look in my brother's room for something and he probably wont even come upstairs, but if he does… distract him for me."_

"_Wait, what?" Cory gasped, grabbing onto her friend's arm as Alison started to head for her bedroom door._

_Laughing she turned and nodded to the revealing shirt her friend was wearing and said, "He spends like 95% of his time stoned, drunk or both. Keeping him distracted for a few minutes in those clothes, shouldn't be too hard."_

"_I don't want to do this." Cory argued, violently shaking her head back and forth as she wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and begged, "Please, don't make me do this."_

"_Oh my god!" She practically yelled in her face, "What's the big deal? I'm not going to be in there long and the last time I saw him he was glued to the couch in front of the TV, chances are he wont even come up here. Come on, I'm giving you a brand new shirt that you look hot in… can't you do this one little thing for me?"_

"_Ali, I'd do anything for you but… I don't even know how to be distracting."_

_Stepping closer Alison gripped the sides of her friend's shirt and pulled it down so far that even her bra was now showing with the low cut neckline._

"_Alison!" She gasped, pulling it back up to where it had been in the first place as her friend let out an almost menacing laugh and innocently asked, "What? You asked how to be distracting."_

"_Yeah, but this is your brother we're talking about!"_

"_Which means I know that it barely takes something shiny on a piece of string to hold his attention. You can do this." She assured her, as she grabbed onto her hand and pulled her out of the bedroom and into the upstairs hallway._

_Seeing the brunette starting to open her mouth to protest again, Alison held up her phone and said, "Just stay near the stairs and if you see him, keep him distracted until I text you that it's clear, okay?"_

_Cory begrudgingly nodded but didn't argue anymore as her friend disappeared into Jason's room. Sighing she pulled her own phone from her pocket and sent Ali a text begging her to hurry with the search, before crossing the fingers on her free hand in hopes that Jason would remain planted in front of the TV. _

_But crossing her fingers for good luck seemed to have an adverse effect as she heard footsteps on the stairs and knew that the only other person home was Jason. She rushed forward before she had time to talk herself out of it, Alison had given her a small task; distract Jason._

"_Hey…" she greeted as she stalled him about halfway up the stairs._

_Giving her a once over he nodded before stepping to the side to try and let her by but she made no attempt to pass, and when he tried to walk past her she blocked him._

"_I was, uh, looking for…" Cory stammered over her words, she couldn't remember ever feeling this nervous before in her entire life._

"_Alison's not down here, she must be upstairs." He assured her, trying to get past her again but she stepped in the way and argued, "I wasn't looking for her… I was actually looking for you."_

"_Me?"_

"_Yeah…"_

"_Why?"_

_Her eyes widened and she knew her cheeks had to be about twenty shades darker than usual from the amount of blood rushing to her face. But she tried to play it cool as she flipped her long, wavy brunette hair over her shoulder and leaned forward slightly mimicking the way she'd seen Alison act when she spoke to guys._

"_Uh, well… I wanted to know what a girls got to do to get an invite to one of your parties?" She said the first thing that came to mind._

_Whenever Alison's parents were out of town the house turned into party central, so loud and crazy that even Alison didn't want to be home when it was going on and always crashed with a friend. She wasn't even sure why she asked that, she didn't want to go to one of those parties –or at least she didn't think she did._

"_You." He said motioning to her with raised eyebrows and a disbelieving expression, "Want to come to one of my parties?"_

"_Yeah." She said, nodding as she tried her best at a flirty smile._

_Slowly he nodded, looking like he was on the verge of laughing as he pointed out, "You know it's not your usual party right? Not like the freshman parties you and your friends go to?"_

_Clearing her throat she nodded, "I'm aware, but that's the point. I don't want some little high school party." Stepping closer and even taking herself by surprise, she continued, "Maybe I'm sick of playing by the rules… maybe I need some danger and excitement in my life."_

_He looked her over again, remembering out of his sisters friends, Cory was the one who always seemed to stand out to him the most. Maybe it was because she looked and acted a little older than her friends, or maybe it was the fact he'd caught her staring at him several times when she was over at the house, possibly a combination of both._

_He was also aware that she might have been there as some kind of distraction, trying to hold him downstairs while his sister no doubt went through his stuff again. Either way, the longer he stared at her the less he cared about what his sister was doing._

_She almost jumped when her phone buzzed in her hand, breaking eye contact with him she checked the message to see it was Alison telling her she could come back upstairs, but now she wasn't so sure she wanted to._

_Tucking her phone in her pocket Cory pulled out a pen and flashed him a sultry smile as she grabbed his hand and began to write her number down, "I have to go but you should text me the next time your parents go out of town and you throw a party."_

_Jason looked at the number written on his flesh before he raised his head and smiled at her, almost causing her legs to go weak as she reached behind her to the stair railing incase her knees really did buckle._

"_I'll let you know, but I doubt you'll actually show up." He admitted, his voice low since she was just in front of him now, mere inches between them._

"_I'll be there!" She laughed as she capped the pen and slid it back into her pocket._

"_I don't know…" He teased, looking her over as he said, "I'm betting you don't show, it doesn't really seem like your scene."_

_Her voice came out in a breathy whisper as his eyes locked with hers and she managed to say, "Well, I have a habit of surprising people."_

_Managing to swallow and strengthen her voice she added, "It wouldn't be smart to bet against me…"_

"_Is that so?" He asked folding his arms over his chest, as his eyes dropped to where her glossed, red tinted lips where curved up at the edges._

"_Mhmm…" Cory hummed, crossing her own arms and mimicking his expression._

"_Alright then." He said running his tongue over his bottom lip as he continued to watch her closely, "If you don't show up… you have to pay for the beer for the next party."_

_Smiling she nodded, pulling in a deep breath as she gained the confidence to arch a brow and counter, "Okay… but what do I get when I show up and win the bet?"_

_He smiled back, leaning in closer and opening his mouth to give her a response but the moment was interrupted when Alison appeared at the top of the stairs and loudly cleared her throat before saying, "Cory, come on."_

_Nodding she turned and followed her friend but looked over her shoulder to give Jason one last smile before the girls disappeared into Alison's room_

**~(End of flashback)~**

* * *

><p><strong>AN- Thanks so much for reading! ^_^ I really hope you all enjoyed the opening chapter. The next one will start with the events from 'season 1, episode 18' in case you were wondering where my story was starting at timeline wise on the show.**

**As you can see, much like Pretty Little Liars, I'll be doing several flashbacks throughout the chapters to tell back stories and show the relationship Cory had with Jason along with her friendship with Alison. I'm really excited for this story, not only is it my first PLL story but I also have a lot planned out already.**

**I really hope you all liked the chapter and I'd really love it if you'd take the time to leave a review and let me now if you're interested in seeing more.**


	2. The Devil's in the Details

**Whispers in the Dark**

**- Chapter Two – The Devil's in the Details**

* * *

><p>Cory met up with her friends outside of the school auditorium to help Hanna get ready for her audition. As the girls sat in a group on the floor Hanna noticed a classmate walk by without her shoes on. Her forehead lined with confusion as she asked them, "Why isn't she wearing any shoes?"<p>

"So she can look short enough to play an eight year old." Spencer answered with a laugh before looking to Emily to who was flipping through the script and said, "I don't see anything about a medal."

"That's what the eight year old killed her classmate for." Spencer said as she leaned over to get a better look.

Nodding Cory agreed, "A penmanship medal, that's why they call her the bad seed."

When she was met with four questioning looks she said, "What? The high school I was in Ohio was so small that you pretty much only had the choice between theater or cheerleading and I'm not exactly the peppy 'go team' type."

As if she'd just picked up on what was said earlier Hanna asked, "Wait? What? A penmanship medal… really?"

"Didn't you read the whole play?" Spencer questioned, but should have already known the answer.

"No, she refuses to read the entire thing." Cory laughed.

Hanna looked over at her and sighed, "Why do I have to read the whole play? I don't want to be the bad seed's mother. I want to be the other mother, the one who's drunk all the time."

"No comment." Spencer sighed.

"Are you really still ragging on me for bringing a flask to the dance?" Hanna asked.

Cory laughed with her friends, but felt a little left out. Even though she'd been keeping up with them over the phone she still felt like she'd already missed so much of the school year with them. It was hard to no get sad when they started talking and laughing about something that she wasn't there to be a part of.

"I don't need another parent, Spence. One's plently." The blonde assured her.

"Well, has the one figured out that Caleb's in the basement?" Aria questioned, finally pulling her attention away from the script in her hands. She'd been there to support Hanna and steal a few glances at Ezra.

"No, but A has." She admitted to them.

"What are you going to do?" Emily questioned.

"Probably tell my mom before A gets to her." she said, and Cory nodded, "Maybe you could ask if he could stay in the guest room or something? You know, leave out the part of him staying there without her knowledge.

Cory watched as Mona walked up to them, it still shocked her to see how much of a makeover the teen had gotten. It was clear to see that Loser-Mona existed no more.

"Hey there, Hanna and clanna!" She cheerfully greeted as she walked up to them after leaving her audition.

"Hey Mona, how'd it go in there?" Hanna asked her friend.

Mona surveyed the group of girls, seeing all of them had a script in their hands. She didn't know if they were all auditioning or not, but she didn't want any more competition than she already had, It had taken her a long time to get to the place that she was and she didn't need Hanna's friends screwing things up. So she put on her best confident smile and exclaimed, "Honestly, I nailed it, it was epic." Then to add more to her story she continued, "I think Mr. Fitz even cried."

"Good for you, Mona. Guess the rest of should just go home." Spencer sarcastically said and Cory raised the script in her hands to cover her face as she stifled a laugh and tried to remind herself that Hanna was friends with the girl now and she needed to try and be nice. But she couldn't help but think what Alison would say if she saw them being friendly with Loser-Mona.

"No! There are no small parts. Only parts that don't make it into the yearbook." She said, smiling menacingly at them and hoping it was enough to get inside of their heads and stir-up some self-doubt. "Good luck!" she called over her shoulder as she turned to walk away.

Cory looked up and saw Aria gazing longingly at Mr. Fitz from across the hallway. She smiled, thinking what a cute couple they made and she honestly couldn't blame her friend for going there with him, he was definitely the hottest teacher she'd ever had.

"Why don't you audition?" She asked.

Aria's eyes widened as she realized she'd been staring at him.

Spencer nodded, "Yeah, you kind of have it in with the director…"

"Stop!" Aria ordered.

"Is he wearing that tie you gave him?" Hanna asked, as Emily looked over to see.

"Stop!"

"It would be so awesome to hang out with you two after school, see you as a couple." Spencer couldn't help but say.

"Right!" Cory loudly said before lowering her voice and gushing, "They have to be sooo cute together!"

"Uh…" Aria cut in, clearing her throat to get their attention, "News flash, just cause we're on this side of the building doesn't mean that we can suddenly light candles and slow dance."

"That's the opening night party!" Spencer exclaimed as she went on to make up a conversation between them until Aria hit her arm and stopped her when their friends busted out laughing.

"It's not like we'll ever be able to go on a double date with you guys." Emily said, her lips in a slight pout as she spoke.

"And you won't even send us pictures." Hanna sighed, showing exactly how much it all upset her that she couldn't see Aria and Ezra as a couple.

"Pictures? Hanna it's not Sea World, we meet at his apartment."

"We're just saying it would be nice." Emily smiled.

"Believe me, I know." She said as she started to gaze in his direction longingly.

**~(The next morning)~**

"Spence, you okay?" Cory asked as she raised her head from her side of the bed and looked over at her friend.

Spencer sat up farther and pushed the blankets off of her as she groaned, "I'm fine, just had another nightmare?"

"Show up for your first day of college naked…again?" Cory laughed as she also sat up and stretched wishing they could just sleep for a few more hours.

"No. But I do still have that dream." She admitted, laughing as Cory pointed out, "I think you started having that dream since your first day of kindergarten."

Spencer opened her mouth to say something but before she could they heard something from downstairs.

"Shouldn't your parents be gone by now?" Cory asked as she walked over to where Spencer was now standing beside the bed.

She nodded and quietly the girls left her room and headed for the stairs, where they found Ian in the living room, taping a box shut.

"Oh hey." He greeted seeing them, "I didn't wake you guys up, did I?"

"Sort of." Spencer coldly said as she looked at her friend over her shoulder before they continued down the stairs and through the living room into the kitchen.

Ian smiled and nodded at Cory, who quickly diverted her eyes and remained glued to her friends side.

"Are you packing or unpacking?"

"Uh… a little of both. You know, I gotta make room. Babies come with a lot of gear." He laughed, and Cory watched him closely. Thinking that if she hadn't seen that video of him in the woods with Alison, she'd probably have a hard time believing he was capable of killing someone.

He pulled of charming well, she had to give him credit for being a pretty good actor. But then again, she was pretty good at hiding her own secrets.

Spencer grabbed a few coffee mugs from the cabinet as Ian continued to explain, "figured it was about time to get rid of some of this dead weight."

"What's in there?" Cory finally asked, nodding to the current box that looked overstuffed.

"Junk, mostly. Yearbooks, baseball gloves, trophies… all the stuff my mom probably wants more than me."

Corey grabbed the milk out of the fridge and Ian turned his attention to Spencer as he asked, "Listen, can you hold this flap down for me?"

He stood up and adjusted the cardboard flaps on top of the box and got the packing tape gun ready but the teenager didn't budge as she looked up from stirring sugar into her coffee.

He sighed, seeing her hesitation and knowing she still thought he was responsible for Alison's death. "It's a tape gun Spencer, you won't get hurt."

"I know that."

"Really? Cause you flinch every time I come near you." He pointed out, growing tired of the way she was acting around him.

"We have to get ready for school." She excused nodding for Cory to come with her, but as they passed him he said, "A little help here, Cor?"

Spencer kept walking, but she stopped to face him as she crossed her arms over her chest.

He nodded to the box and said, "Can you just hold this shut for me?"

Seeing her reluctance he sighed, "Come on, we were friend at one point, right?"

"I was never friends with you." She argued, but wished she hadn't when he raised his eyebrows and shot her a look as he reasoned, "Well, you were around Jason a lot and-"

"Just tape the damn box." She groaned, as she rushed over and held it shut for him.

"Jason?" Spencer questioned, staring at her friend and waiting for a response, but she didn't get one as Cory ignored her and asked Ian, "Is that all?"

"Thanks." He nodded, then glanced over to her friend as he admitted, "Yeah, Melissa told me what you said to her at the swim meet. You really think I had something to with what happened to Alison DiLaurentis. Though for the record, I'm not surprised she ended up that way."

"That's a hell of a thing to say." Cory shot at him.

His gaze fell on her as he said, "It means your friend Alison was a psycho stalker who wouldn't take no for an answer. Maybe someone else had enough of her."

"I don't know…" Cory breathed shaking her head and giving him a look to show she didn't believe him. Nodding Spencer agreed, "Sounds like you're blaming the victim."

"Listen, our relationship could be summed up in two words: get lost." He yelled, seeming unnaturally angered by the situation.

"Right, well it's too bad she's not here to defend herself." Spencer yelled, practically stealing the words from Cory's mouth.

"Yeah, well trust me… she never played that positon. Your friend Alison was always on offense." He said a tone that dismissed the conversation as he turned to head out of the doors towards the barn.

"Can you believe him?" Spencer growled.

"That he's a homicidal creep, yeah. I buy that totally… but what are you trying to do?" she asked, turning to face her friend.

"What?" Spencer questioned.

Rolling her eyes Cory pointed out, "You know exactly what I'm talking about. We're 100% sure that he's responsible for what happened to Ali, and you're acting like that towards him?"

"What are you saying? I should just hide up in my room?"

"No, but I'm saying you shouldn't provoke him… we know what he's capable of."

"Why does he think you hung around Ali's brother?" Spencer turned the line of questioning around on her and Cory quickly rolled her eyes, "I don't know… we need to get dressed for school though."

"Cory?" Spencer pushed, knowing she wasn't getting the entire story.

"What?" Her friend exclaimed but didn't give her a chance to ask anymore Jason related questions as she said, "I need to go get dressed for school."

As the friends walked up the stairs, Cory frowned at herself and how after everything she was still lying to her friends. She wasn't even sure why she kept doing it, Alison always told her that you're better off with a really good lie. And once Alison found out that Cory had been hooking up with her older brother, she made her feel like it was something she should keep a secret from everyone, and so she had.

Even now that she had no reason to keep lying about it, she still felt like she couldn't tell anyone.

**~()~**

"Hey Cory!" Mona greeted with a wide smile as she stopped next to her locker.

"Oh, uh… hey?" She greeted back, unsure of why the teenager was talking to her.

"I just wanted to be the first one to congratulate you." She beamed smiling.

"What?"

"On getting the part in the play!" Mona said, like Cory should have already known what she was talking about.

"I didn't even audition." She laughed thinking it was some sort of mix-up or that Mona was confused.

"Of course you did, I saw you there." Mona reminded her.

"Yeah, I was there and I did go out in front of Mr. Fitz… but I was just helping Hanna audition. I never even signed up."

"Well you must have really left an impression. Here, look… I made a copy of the cast list to frame since I got my part as well. Hanna even got the part she wanted." Mona continued to speak in a voice so cheery it took everything Cory had to not snap at her.

Pulling the bright orange sheet of paper from the other teenager, Cory read over it as her eyes widened and jaw practically hitting the floor as she saw what Mona was congratulating her for:

_Cory Blackwell, cast as - Rhoda Penmark_

"Congrats!" Mona said again as she took the paper and said, "I'll make you a copy too if you want-"

But she was cut off as Cory shut her locker and said, "I need to talk to Mr. Fitz."

It was at the end of the day that she finally tracked the English teacher down as he was setting up the room where the cast was supposed to meet for the play after school.

"Mr. Fitz?" Cory questioned as she walked into the room, lightly knocking on the open door as she passed through it.

Looking up from a folder he gave her a friendly smile as he said, "Cory, you're a little early. But everyone else should be showing up soon."

"I actually need to talk to you about the play." She said, eyeing him suspiciously as she crossed her arms over her chest and asked, "Why did you cast me as Rhoda?"

Looking a little surprised and taken aback by what she said his eyebrows furrowed as he questioned, "I'm sorry?"

"I didn't even audition, I was just helping Hanna out. So what are you trying to get at?" She asked, seeming angered.

But Ezra looked more confused than he was in the beginning as he said, "Yeah, that's what I thought too. Which honestly I was a little disappointed that you weren't auditioning because you seemed to know the play exceptionally well and you've got quite a stage presence-"

"So you what, just thought you'd give me the lead part and I wouldn't say anything? That I'd just go along quietly?" She pushed, not letting him finished.

"Um, no… if you'd let me speak, I was going to tell you that I was disappointed until I took another look at the audition sheet and saw you'd signed up." He said as he turned to the table he'd set up and moved some papers around until he found what he was looking for and turned back to face her presenting an audition sign up sheet and where she saw her name was written in. The handwriting looked very similar to her own, but it wasn't hers.

Taking the paper from him she looked at it closer and admitted, "I didn't write this in… I never signed up."

"Maybe a friend was trying to help you out?" He guessed smiling to the students who were starting to fill the room. Taking the paper from her, he sighed, "If you really don't want the part, I can take you out of the play… but for everyone's sake, I really hope you'll consider sticking around. You seemed like a natural up on the stage."

Nodding and feeling embarrassed for the way she'd freaked out on him, she quickly muttered an apology and sat down next to where Spencer was on the couch in the room.

"Everything okay?" She asked her.

"You didn't put my name on the audition sheet… did you?" Cory questioned.

"No." spencer answered, as she looked down to the binder in her hands and started to go over her lines.

When her cellphone went off from her pocket, Cory took her phone out and her heart sank as she saw it was a text from a blocked number:

_I thought you'd be perfect for the lead role. After all Rhoda drowned her classmate to death and you drowned your little brother. Maybe Rhoda isn't the only bad seed? Casting at its finest. Kisses –A_

Silencing her phone she put it back in her pocket and shook her head, she'd considered maybe one of her friends had thought she was good and put her name on the list. But now she knew that wasn't the truth, it had been A this entire time putting her on the audition list for the part of Rhoda.

Of course, A had nothing to do with her actually landing the part, well unless Mr. Fitz was A but that didn't seem likely.

It was starting to feel like she couldn't go a single day without being taunted, and for what? What was the endgame here? Torture her until A took whatever evidence they had to police or make her turn herself in?

None of it made sense.

As Mr. Fitz talked and Aria passed out the practice schedules, Ian showed up in the room. Claiming to be looking for the varsity booster club, but it was pretty obvious he'd taken a wrong turn on purpose with the look he shot in Spencer's direction.

Aria sat down with her friends as the room thinned out with students going to the vending machines for break.

"I can't believe you kissed him." Aria said, as a chill ran down her spine at the thought as Emily joined them in the room.

"We all wanted to kiss him." Spencer quickly reminded them.

"Not all of us." Cory argued and Hanna nodded, "Yeah, not me… never."

"At that frat party, when he was big man on campus. The one Alison got us into… we were all checking him out." Spencer reminded her friends.

"No… I never liked Ian." Cory stated, looking down to her lap and thinking that at the time she probably would have if she hadn't been so interested in Alison's brother, Jason.

"Me either." Hanna tried to lie, but Emily called her bluff as she said, "Yes, you."

**~(Flashback)~**

_Once they'd gotten off the bus and made it to the frat house where the party was being held, Alison stopped them all outside and passed out plastic cards that they all soon found out were fake I.D's, putting them all at over the age of twenty-one._

"_You are so bad ass!" Hanna exclaimed as she looked down at to hers._

"_Did you make these?" Emily questioned._

"_Where did you get this picture of me? I look like my mother…" Hanna realized._

_Leaning over Aria laughed as she pointed out, "That is your mother."_

"_Wait…" Emily said looking around, "Didn't you get Cory one?"_

"_She's got hers." Alison said with raised eyebrows as they watched her pull a card from her purse._

"_Why did you get one first?" Aria asked, but she didn't get to answer the question as Alison said, "Maybe Cor, likes to run with an older crowd, right hun?"_

_Cory shot her a look from her under her thick, mascara darkened lashes and the blond smiled innocently back at her before turning and showing her id to get into the party –all five of her friends followed suit._

_Once they were inside, everyone looked around with deer in the headlights sort of looks. There was loud music with the bass thudding so loud they could feel it in their chests, a pool game was going on and there were even some girls dancing up on the tables. It was the kind of scene they'd thought only existed in the movies._

_Seeing how star-truck her friends were, Alison laughed, "You guys can all thank me later."_

_She turned to walk away but Aria quickly stopped her, "Wait… what do we do now?"_

"_Act your new age." She said, ignoring the look Cory kept giving her after her comment outside._

_Hearing someone talking they looked over to see Ian Thomas making his way through the crowd._

"_Spence, isn't that your sisters new boyfriend?" Aria asked._

"_He's cute!" Hanna exclaimed then eyed the guy next to him as she added, "So is his friend…"_

"_Easy, he's a little old for you." Emily cautioned, still feeling like going to the party was a bad idea. She'd rather have just had them sleep over and watch movies with endless tubs of popcorn._

"_Not tonight, I'm twenty-six." She argued, showing off her ID again._

"_Put that away!" Alison quickly snapped, not wanting them to get caught._

"_Yeah, and take a math class… you're twenty-one." Spencer nodded._

"_Twenty-whatever, it doesn't matter… I still say they're pretty cute." She said, continuing to practically jump from excitement._

"_Yeah, but you're really-" Emily started to argue again, but this time Alison cut her off._

"_Lighten up, Em." Then turning to Cory she questioned, "What do you think?"_

"_I don't know." She stuttered out._

"_Of course you do… Melissa's boyfriend is the same age as my brother, everyone here is probably Jason's age. Do you think that makes any of the guys too old?" Alison taunted, dangling her friend's secret right out in front of their entire group._

"_What?" Emily yelled, covering her ear closest to the speakers with her hand to try and hear them._

_Cory's jaw tensed in anger, but she knew she couldn't really say anything back. If she made the wrong comment, Alison could easily out her secret that she'd been getting really cozy with Jason lately. _

_Normally someone wouldn't be happy about their brother hooking up with one of their friends, Alison however seemed almost thrilled when she found out. Probably only because it gave something to hold over Cory._

_Hearing giggling they looked over to see Ian leading an obviously drunk girl up the stairs of the frat house._

"_Looks like Mr. Melissa is giving Miss Rum and Coke a special tour." Alison said._

"_Maybe he's just taking her to the bathroom?" Hanna offered when she saw the look on Spencer's face._

"_Or finding an empty room so she can lie down." Emily agreed, always wanting to see the best in people._

"_Yeah on top of her." Alison said, causing Cory to laugh. But when she saw no one else was laughing she asked, "What?"_

_They continued to look between her and Cory, with a laugh at all of her friend's expense the brunette said, "You guys just think so innocently…"_

"_Right!" Alison exclaimed laughing louder so the attention would all fall on her, "They're honestly too adorable sometimes."_

_Hanna, Spencer, Emily and Aria all shifted and looked around uncomfortably as Cory and Alison talked about them as if they weren't just right in front of them. That was something that happened quite often, they made the rest of the group feel like they weren't on the same maturity level as them._

_Sighing at them Alison rolled her eyes, "Look, I don't know about you vestal virgins, but I'm here to make some memories. Let's divide and conquer… meet back here at midnight."_

"_Wait!" Emily called after here, "We don't even know what to do… you can't just leave us."_

"_Don't worry, Em. Just stick with Cory, it's not exactly her first rodeo." Alison teased._

"_What is that supposed to mean?" Aria asked, when she saw Cory starting to stare down at the floor and avoid their eyes._

"_I've never been to a frat party." Cory admitted as she looked around, feeling out of place._

"_No, but this isn't your first party… is it?" Alison asked, stepping closer to her. "I mean there may not be hard liquor on the tap and smoke so thick in the air you could cut it with a knife…"_

"_That sounds like a party your brother would throw." Spencer cut in, as she looked back towards the satirs wanting to see if Ian resurfaced._

_Laughing Alison nodded._

"_Yeah, like Cory would ever be a party like that." Aria rolled her eyes at the idea._

"_You never know… our little, Cory could just be full of surprises."_

"_Ali…" Cory warned shooting her a look._

_Smiling in response Alison looked at her and said, "Take care of them… we'll meet back up at midnight."_

_With that she disappeared into the crowd and left Cory to deal with the barrage of questions her friends had for her._

"_What has been going on between you and Ali lately?" Hanna questioned as soon as the other blonde was out of sight._

"_Nothing."_

"_It doesn't sound like nothing…"_

"_Hanna, just back off, okay?" She unintentionally snapped at her and immediately felt bad when Hanna's smile fell and she looked around, crossing her arms over herself like she wanted to disappear from the room._

"_I'm sorry." She apologized, but it didn't seem to do much to lift her friend's spirits._

"_What now?" Aria questioned._

"_I'm getting a drink." Cory groaned as she walked away, leaving the rest of the group shocked at her behavior as Spencer called after her, but she didn't turn back around._

**~(End of Flashback)~**

"You should have told Melissa about Ian that night." Emily said, as she thought back to the night they'd snuck into the party too.

"Like what… I crashed your boyfriend's frat party? I would have been so dead." Spencer argued.

"Like your sister isn't now?" Aria breathed, before standing up to go back where her seat was.

"And knocked up with his bad seed." Hanna said as she looked down to the script and thought of how the name was fitting.

Cory sat in silence as Mr. Fitz fired off questions to the cast, trying to make sure they understood their characters and what the idea behind the story was.

"Let's stop here, these are all good thoughts but we'll pick up where we left tomorrow." Mr. Fitz said to them and Cory nodded closing her bound script and sighing. She wasn't sure she even wanted to stay in the play, she did love acting and being on stage but knowing the only reason she was there was so A could torment her, made the idea of being the lead in a performance less appealing by the second.

Gathering his books to leave he continued, "Study your lines… put away the props. I'll see you then."

After some more internal debating, Cory stood up and started to follow her teacher to tell him she was sorry but really didn't' think she'd be able to perform in the play after all. But before she could get out of the room, Spencer called out for them all to come look at something.

Once they were all over to her, she showed them a trophy with Ian's name on it that she'd found in the prop trunk.

"Why would that be in here?" Cory asked, then gasped when Spencer turned the trophy and you could Cleary see blood on the marble base.

"Is that…blood?" Emily gasped.

"Em, where did you get this?" Spencer questioned, knowing Emily was one of the students who'd gather props for the play.

"I didn't!" she argued, "I've never seen it before."

Swallowing hard and feeling her stomach starting to sour Cory choked out, "Do you guys think that's what he used to kill Ali?"

"Don't you?" Spencer whisper-yelled at her.

"Wait, just slow down." Aria came through as the voice of reason while everyone else was starting to panic, "We don't know if that's Alison's blood… we don't even know if that _is_ blood."

Hanna countered with a very valid argument, "Yeah, but we don't know that it's not."

Slamming the lid of the prop trunk closed Aria said, "This is insane… why would he hide that in here for everyone to see?"

"Because it's a bold move and no one would ever look for it here. Why did the bad seed hide the medal in the box on top of her desk?" Spencer argued.

Raising her head and playing the question over, Hanna turned to Cory and asked, "Why would you hide the medal on the top of your desk?"

"I didn't." She sighed, rubbing her fore head, "Hanna, I'm not the bad seed."

"You're Rhoda." She argued back.

"Oh my god!" Cory exclaimed dropping her arms to the side in defeat as she shook her head and Hanna shrugged like she didn't understand.

"We saw the video, Ian didn't' have a trophy in his hands." Aria continued to fight and prove her point.

"We didn't see what was on the ground." Emily pointed out, feeling sick to her stomach at the thought of them coming across the murder weapon.

"What is the trophy for?" Cory questioned.

Opening the lid to the trunk, Spencer said, "Oh my god… this is from when they were together at Hilton Head!"

Arai nodded, biting down on the inside of her cheek. The evidence was really stacking up that it was the weapon Ian could have used to hit Ali over the head with.

"Think about it guys…" Cory sighed, thinking back to something Alison had told her on several occasions, "The bolder the move, the less anyone questions it."

"Wow…" Hanna breathed, "Sometimes you sound so much Ali, it's scary."

Cory shrugged and Spencer spoke up, "We need to go to the police station now and turn this in… we can't run the risk of losing evidence again."

Her friends nodded but left it up to Spencer to actually pick up the trunk and carry it out to the cars. None of them sure what they wanted to happen. If the blood was Alison's than Ian could easily go down for her murder, his name was literally carved in stone on the weapon. But if it wasn't than it would look bad on them.

* * *

><p><strong>AN - Thank you all so much for reading! I hope you all liked the chapter.**

**I owe an extra special thank you to xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, SmellYourScentForMiles, xxxRena, BloomingBlueMoon85, RHatch89, Emmettluver2010, Lucy Greenhill, guest, Holly, Maze, DancingDorisDay, Nicole, Englishbiotch99, Heartless-Princess33, missEMbear, guest and Momsen-xxxx for reviewing chapter 1! I'm so excited to share the rest of Cory's story with you all. ^_^**


	3. Bad Kids

**Whispers in the Dark**

**- Chapter Three – Bad Kids**

* * *

><p>"Did you guys sleep at all?" Hanna asked as they all sat around a table outside of the school.<p>

"No, I just tossed and turned." Emily sighed.

"She tossed and I turned." Spencer corrected, causing Cory to laugh as she nudged Aria beside her and said, "Sounds like us."

"No it doesn't, you were the one doing all of the tossing and turning, I seriously about pushed you out of the bed." She argued, rubbing her tired eyes.

Hanna had stayed at her own house to make sure her mom didn't go into the basement, but no one else really wanted to be alone after possibly finding the weapon that Ian had used to knock Alison out. So Emily had stayed at spencer's and Cory stayed with Aria.

"I just can't wait for him to be carted out of here. Just knowing that he's in this building right now, thinking he could get away with it…" Hanna started to say, but Emily cut in as she shivered, "Her blood in the trophy case…"

"It makes me sick." Cory agreed.

Aria looked up, her eyes widening as she saw the police at the school along with the officer they'd handed the trophy over to. "Guys!" She exclaimed motioning towards the police.

"Oh my god, they're going to drag him out in front of the whole school!" Spencer guessed, but it was clear her assumption was wrong when the detective walked over to them.

"Ladies." He greeted, surveying them with a scrutinizing eye, "Which one of you found the trophy?"

When no one answered, he continued, "Who's, uh, Spencer Hastings?"

She raised her hand in response.

"So, was this a group effort or are you four just along for the ride?"

"What do you mean? We gave you evidence in-" Cory started to say, but he cut her off.

"I mean, you should've done a little research, there was no golf tournament at Hilton Head on that date."

"What about the blood?" Emily asked, feeling the last of her hope starting to slip away.

"It's not human blood… comes from a rat."

"No, but then why would there-" Hanna tried to ask, but it was becoming increasingly clear that he didn't want to listen to any of them as the officer cut her off, "Let's save our questions for the precinct. Follow me."

The school courtyard was buzzing with whispers and loud stares as they were led away from the table by police. It didn't make any sense, they'd handed over what they honestly thought was evidence in Ali's murder, and now they were the ones being treated like criminals.

Once they reached where the police patrol cars were parked all of their phones went off in unison, meaning one thing –A was behind this.

'_Rat' me out. Your blood's next. –A_

"A planted that trophy…" Hanna breathed.

"We should have known." Aria agreed, as she slid her phone back into her pocket and looked around at her friends. "

"Guys…" Aria breathed as she started to think back to the night they'd snuck into the frat party where Ian was she asked, "Where was Alison that night? At the party where the girl fell… where was Alison?"

"She wasn't with us…" Spencer said looking to Aria.

"She wasn't with us, either." Hanna remembered looking to Emily.

"She wasn't with me either." Cory admitted, causing spencer to scoff as she said, "You got so drunk that night, I doubt you can remember anything clearly."

"What are you getting at?" She asked, ignoring her friend's comment.

"I'm saying maybe it wasn't Ian who pushed that girl. Maybe… maybe that drunk girl was just in Alison's way." Aria admitted, hoping they'd hear her out before they started to discredit her theory.

"Why would she even do that?" Emily whispered, not able to believe it.

"Because that frat party wasn't a random pick. She took us there because she wanted to see, Ian." Spencer guessed, "Maybe she really was stalking him…"

"So what, you believe Ian now and don't think he killed her?" Hanna questioned, starting to feel like she was getting whiplash from how fast their theories kept changing.

"I didn't say that, I think he killed her… but there is still a lot we don't know about that night." Spencer reasoned.

"I don't know, I mean… I don't necessarily think Ali was stalking him, but I'm also not entirely convinced that he's the one who killed her." Cory finally admitted, looking between her friends.

"What changed?" Emily asked.

"The other morning at my house… Ian made that comment about how you guys used to be friends, what's that about?" Spencer pushed.

Cory looked around and sighed, "I guess we kind of were… we sort of hung out with the same crowd sometimes... I've always thought he was kind of weird… he always had that video camera glued to his hand and that freaked me out. But there's a pretty big jump from creep to killer."

"Why don't I remember you hanging out with him?" Hanna questioned with a confused look on her face.

"Because I didn't tell you guys, okay? It was when I started drinking all the time and started to hang out with some of the stoners…" She admitted, trying to ignore the slightly judgmental looks they were giving her as Spencer pointed out, "And you never once thought it might he useful to tell us that sort of information?"

"Well, I…" she started to argue but Spencer's face changed as she said, "Wait a minute… Just before Alison started talking about how she was seeing an older guy, she kept hinting that you were into someone older too, was that Ian?"

"No!" Cory quickly answered, but still wasn't ready to open up to them about her past with Jason so she sighed and rolled her eyes, "It was another guy Ian's age, like I said… we sort of hung with the same crowd at times."

"Guys think about it…" Aria began to say, "What if Ali thought Jenna was in her way of Ian too and she threw that firecracker on purpose, knowing that Jenna would be in the garage?"

"She really played all of us." Emily quietly whispered.

"She had all of us fooled, until now." Hanna nodded in agreement.

"I just don't get it, Cor. We had so many phone conversations about Ian and even after you moved back and you never once mentioned that you knew him. Did you know something was going on between him and Ali too?" Spencer asked, like a dog with a bone she wasn't willing to give it up. She felt like she was onto something.

When Cory remained silent she gasped, "Oh my god! You did, didn't you?"

"No, not for sure…" She defended.

"But you suspected it and you never said anything?" Aria asked, seeming a little hurt.

"Guys…"

"Her and Ali were always together… she spent more time with her than we did." Spencer remembered.

"God, I used to be so jealous of you guys." Hanna remembered, thinking of how many times she'd tried to call Alison or Cory and they'd be together, when none of the other group was invited.

"So what?" Cory defensively asked, "You think just because Ali played games that –that's what I'm doing now? Because that's not it at all… you guys aren't' the only one she did that to. She played me too."

"We can't do this right now." Aria pointed out, nodding to where Ian was standing just outside of the school watching them with a smug smile. She continued, "We need to stay strong and stick together… we're strongest when we're all on the same side."

They nodded, knowing that whether Ian killed Alison or not, he was onto the fact that they at least thought he was guilty and were actively trying to prove it. Which made him a common enemy they all shared.

As the friends were loaded into two police cars and driven towards the station, Cory thought back to the night of the party and for the first time really started to wonder if maybe Alison had pushed that girl down the stairs. It was a possibility that it wasn't an accident.

Closing her eyes she tried to remember back to that night after she'd started drinking, hoping she'd remember something she'd missed before –but she couldn't. Truth was, after she'd started drinking the rest of the night was a blur. She'd woke up the next morning in her own bed with Alison beside her and the rest of their group scattered around her bedroom, she didn't even remember how she got there.

Her mouth felt dry as cotton and her hands balled into fists at her sides repeatedly as she thought of how bad things used to get when she started drinking. She wasn't always like that, in fact she'd never really drank until she started hanging around with Jason.

**~(Flashback)~**

_Cory sighed as Alison's phone went to voicemail again. Sighing she opened the front door to her friend's house thinking that maybe Alison had overslept or something since it was a Saturday. _

_She did a quick search of the downstairs before heading upstairs thinking how strange it was, Alison never slept this late before. Weekend's were their time to go out and have fun, sometimes they didn't even sleep until Sunday night._

"_Ali?" Cory questioned as she gently knocked on the door to her best friend's room and walked inside, but her friend was still nowhere to be found._

_She was about to just leave and go back home but paused in the hallway when she heard music coming from Jason's room._

_Taking a deep breath she walked over and knocked on his closed door, she tried to tell herself it was only because she was wondering if he knew where Alison was. But secretly she was also just wanting to see him, it had been a few days since their encounter on the stairs when she'd given him her number so she could be invited to his next party._

_A moment she'd played over and over in her head since it happened, her first real attempt at flirting and it seemed to have turned out okay because she was pretty sure he was returning her advances. He was a few years older than her, but everyone always told her she acted older than her age. So maybe if she could show him that, he'd really be interested in her. After all, it seemed like all of his friends had gone onto college and Alison said he never did anything but stay in his room, drink and get high. So he was apparently not really acting his age._

_Her eyes widened at that thought and she wondered what she was even doing there at his bedroom door. He was a complete loser, or at least that's what Alison said all of the time. And with his bad habits she knew she shouldn't be interested in him… but she couldn't help it._

_Changing her mind she turned around and started to leave, but just as she did the door to the bedroom opened and she had no choice but to turn back around and face him._

_He stared at her for a moment, almost laughing at the shocked expression on her face._

_Leaning against the door frame, he crossed his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrows as he said, "Wow, you're really persistent about that party invite, huh?"_

_Laughing she smiled at him and he smiled back, her stomach erupted in flutters and she thought of how none of Alison's others friends got a smile like that from him. _

"_No, uh… I was just wondering if you knew where Ali was." She admitted._

"_I heard her leave about an hour ago." He admitted, as he turned around and walked back into his room leaving the door open as Cory looked down to the threshold and wondered if she should follow him or not. She wasn't allowed to have boys in her room and she was sure that rule from her parents extended to her not going into their room's either –especially not a friend's older brother. But they'd never have to know…_

_Without a second thought she walked into his room and looked around, he'd already graduated high school, but his room looked like a teenagers room. There were some dirty clothes on the floor beside his bed and a cluttered desk the only other furniture he had was a large TV with several game consoles on the floor in front of it and a worn looking recliner facing it._

_Rock band posters lined the walls and there was an ever growing pyramid sculpture of beer cans on the floor next to the chair, which almost all toppled over when he dropped back into his seat and watched her as she nervously looked around before slowly taking a seat on the very edge of his bed and looking at him. Her hazel eyes wide as she stuttered out, "Do you know where she went?"_

_Finishing off the last of his current can of beer, he shrugged, "I heard other voices… probably out with friends."_

_Swallowing hard she watched as he stacked the can on top of another one and she cleared her throat, "Oh, uh… we had plans today."_

_Looking down she smoothed the edges of her skirt out and breathed, "I guess she forgot."_

_He didn't hear her but he did see how upset she looked. "You alright?"_

_Looking up at him she shrugged, "Do you ever just feel like you don't belong sometimes?"_

"_No." He answered, then continued, "My dad's already left for work and my mom's downstairs right now getting ready for work. They've got everything figured out, even Ali seems to have everything together most of the time. Everyone I went to school with has moved away for college, they really only come back for the parties-"_

_She laughed at realizing he'd been sarcastic, it was sounding like he was feeling just as out of place as she was lately._

"_You're mom already left, by the way… it's almost noon."_

"_What…" He breathed feeling his pockets until he located his phone and leaned his head back with a sigh at himself, he'd only woken up a few hours before then and thought it was early morning._

"_Can I ask you something?" Cory questioned, not able to pull her eyes off of him._

_He looked over at her and nodded._

"_How come you didn't go on to college with your friends? What do you want to do?" She questioned, for her she'd always grown up thinking college came immediately after high school and there wasn't really a question as to whether she'd go or not._

"_I don't know." He shrugged, he watched her for a few moments before he asked, "What about you?"_

"_College, right after high school." She answered without thinking._

"_Hmm…" He hummed._

"_What?"_

"_Is that what you want or is that what your parents told you was going to happen?"_

_She started to answer but then stopped and thought for a moment before she shrugged, "Kind of both I guess…"_

"_See that's the problem in a place like Rosewood. Everyone is always so caught up in what everyone else thinks about them. There's no room for error, our parents pretty much plan our entire lives our and we're just expected to go along with it." He watched her intently as he spoke, and she thought that for someone who spend most of their time stoned –he was actually really smart and could even be called wise._

_What he said was the truth, they lived in a small town where everyone knew everyone else's business and her entire life all she'd heard from her parents was that in a town like theirs, there was no room for accidents. Because long after you messed up and forgot about it, your neighbors never would and they'd be right there to remind you at every turn._

"_It's exhausting isn't it?" He breathed as he stood up and walked over to his dresser, glancing over his shoulder he continued, "Having to pretend you're perfect around the clock."_

"_It's more than exhausting." She admitted, smiling as she thought of how being around him was the first time as long as she could remember that she wasn't feeling judged. Even around her friend's she always felt like they were either judging her or trying to compete with her._

"_How do you get past it?" Cory questioned, wondering if he had any sound advice to go along with his theories and empathy._

"_This helps." He said as he turned around and she saw he had a bottle of alcohol in his hand. Her eyes widened, she'd never really drank much before and she wasn't sure if he was just taking the bottle out to casually drink or if he expected her to drink with him. _

_She rubbed her sweaty palms on her skirt and tried to not show how nervous she was._

_Walking back over he sat down beside her and said, "Honestly, Rosewood and the people in it are never going to change… so you either have to comform, or get used to them talking about you."_

"_Or drown your sorrows?" She joked, hoping her laugh sounded confident and not like she was manic._

_He looked at her and laughed along as he took a drink from the bottle and said, "Hey, each to their own... right?"_

"_Yeah, I guess so." She nodded, not feeling as nervous anymore._

_She wasn't sure what it was about him, but she just felt at ease in his presence which was pretty surprising, considering her every time he smiled at her, if felt like her knees turned to rubber and her heart threatened to burst right out of her rib cage._

_Her eyes widened as he held out the bottle he'd been drinking from to her and shook it lightly to show he was offering her a drink._

"_Oh no thanks I don't…" Her voice trailed off as she considered it was just one drink, it wasn't like taking one drink was going to change everything and they were alone in the house. No one was going to tell her parents or look down on her for it. He was treating her like an adult and to be honest, was actually probably one of the nicest people she'd ever met and could have an actual conversation with._

_Before she could change her mind, she quickly grabbed the bottle and took a big drink from it before pushing it back into his hands and causing him to start laughing a she leaned over slightly and choked out, "Oh my god… is it supposed to burn like that?"_

_Finally getting a breath she sat up, her face wrinkled from the taste of the alcohol still lingering on her tongue and now there was a warm feeling in her stomach where it had settled._

"_Maybe you shouldn't have tried to drink half the bottle to begin with." He laughed, and despite the burning sensation still in her throat she smiled at him._

_It was over an hour later, that she finally realized what time it was and she certainly didn't want to run into Alison while trying to leave the house, or worse end up running into Mr. or Mrs. DiLaurentis. He walked her to the front door in a comfortable silence; they'd spent the hour just talking. Thinking back she couldn't really remember what they'd even talked about, just that being with him and not being judged for anything felt like a safe place._

_One they reached the front door and stepped out onto the porch, she practically felt like she was floating. A small part of that was probably the alcohol she'd consumed, but most of it stemmed from just being around him._

"_I think I was wrong about you." He admitted as they stood on the porch with the door to his house open behind him as he said, "you're a lot different than I thought you were."_

"_In a good way or a bad way?" she questioned, nervously._

_He smiled at seeing her worried expression. "A good way… you're just different than everyone else in Rosewood. Maybe I was even wrong about my parties not really being your scene."_

_His words hung in the air as her lips curved up into a wide, uncontrollable smile. As impossible as it had seemed in the beginning, they were pretty much friends now and he was so much easier to get along with than his sister._

_She'd gone to the house looking forward to spending a day with Alison, but left feeling relieved that Alison had stood her up and almost ecstatic with the time she'd got to spend with Jason because of it._

_Remembering back to their last conversation about his party, she looked at him and asked, "You never got the chance to tell me what I'd get when I win the bet and actually show up." _

_It was unclear whether she was actually getting super confident around him or if the was the liquid courage she'd consumed, but either way her move paid off as he stepped closer to her and their eyes locked._

_Leaning down he gently grabbed onto her chin and tilted her face up to him as he leaned down and captured her lips in a kiss that made time feel like it was standing still. She leaned up farther, deepening the kiss and softly smiled against his lips as the formerly bitter notes from the taste of the alcohol actually tasted sweet in his mouth._

_She left the DiLaurentis house that day flying home on her own personal cloud nine feeling. He'd kissed her, he'd actually kissed her and it was absolutely amazing. _

**~(End of flashback)~**

It had been a couple days since they'd been questioned by police even though no further action had been taken, it was abundantly clear that their plan was backfiring more and more each day.

Cory's dad had been shooting her disappointed looks ever since they'd left the station, and had muttered under his breath several times that if he'd known moving back to Rosewood was going to cause them this much of a scene they'd have moved somewhere else.

Spencer's parents thought she was unstable and no one in her family believed Ian was capable of murdering Alison or thought he'd done anything wrong. Caleb hadn't been able to crack the code and get into Jenna's phone yet so all they really had to go on was the number '214' that spencer had deciphered from a paper brail scratching toby had provided her with.

So far their best lead there was that it could possibly be a room Jenna had at the Edgewood Motor Court.

They'd been almost entirely honest with the police about what they knew when it came to Ian, but the police didn't' believe them. They all but flat out said they thought the girls were crying wolf, only in their case the wolf was living in Spencer's backyard and all of her friends were worried for her.

Just as Cory had sat down to dinner with her dad for the first time all week her phone started to buzz on the table next to her plate of lasagna and she cringed –a normal reaction when it seemed like A could be sending her another threat.

But she breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was from Spencer, that was until she opened it and saw that it read; S.O.S.

A code they'd been using for years to alert everyone to drop what they were doing and meet up.

"Can't you unglue your phone from your hand? Just long enough to eat dinner with your father?" Austin sighed.

Scooting her chair away from the table she apologized, "I'm sorry, dad. But I have to go…"

"It's late-" He started to argue, but she cut him off. "It's important, I'm sorry."

With a loud, disappointed sigh he dropped his fork to the plate with a loud clank as he said,. "Cory, I didn't want to say anything… you've been doing so good since you got out of rehab. But we're back in Rosewood now and if people see you coming and going at all hours of the night, they're going to start talking and with your past-"

She turned and looked at him as she pulled her jacket on and shrugged, "Then let them talk dad. Our town and the people in it are never going to change, they're never going to stop judging. I can't do anything about that, but what I can do is not let them get to me."

Without another word she rushed out of the house and started her journey to spencer's by cutting through neighbors yards and managing to set off about every security light she passed until she met up with Hanna, Emily and Aria.

"Did she send anything else?" Aria asked her friends as they watched the police cars outside of Spencer's house.

"Just the S.O.S." Hanna admitted.

"Same here." Cory agreed.

"What is going on in there…" Emily breathed, as she hoped their friend was alright.

Their phones went off in unison and they all held their breath with the hope that it would be a text from Spencer filling them in on what was happening. But it wasn't.

A mutual degree of shock shook the group of friends as they read what the text said:

"_Breaking news, bitches. Spencer Hastings now a person of interest… in my death. –A"_

* * *

><p><strong>AN- ^_^ Did you all like the chapter? I really hope so. Also if anyone is interested, the link to my Tumblr account is up on my profile and I've also made a mix on 8tracks to go along with this story, the link is also on my profile. ^_^**

**I want to take a moment to thank everyone to has added this story to your favorites and/or subscribed to updated alerts. It means so much!**

**And I owe some extra special thank yous and long distance hugs to xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, SmellYourScentForMiles, Heartless-Princess33, Lucy Greenhill, xxxRena, Pluv143000, Momsen-xxx, RHatch89, DancingDorisDay, InYourNightmares, HermioneandMarcus, and the 2 guests who reviewed the last chapter.**


	4. Lies of the Beautiful People

**Whispers in the Dark**

**- Chapter Four – Lies of the Beautiful People **

* * *

><p>After stopping on the way to school to pick up a coffee, Cory met up with her friends in the cafeteria before school. She walked into the middle of Hanna excitedly gushing and showing off a picture of a jeweled owl pendant she was sure Caleb had gotten for her.<p>

"Oh, it's so beautiful!" Cory exclaimed when she saw the picture, "When did he give it to you?"

"Well, he hasn't yet. I found it. I wasn't looking for it but I found it and took a picture… then just put it back." She explained, smiling ear to ear.

"Why an owl?" Emily asked when the phone was passed over to her.

"It's symbolic."

"Of what?"

"Our first night together… in the tent. We heard owls." Hanna reminded them of the story with how she'd lost her virginity to Caleb when they were camping out after her mom had kicked him from the house.

"What? Owls swooping down to carry off their pray?" Aria joked, causing everyone to laugh. Even Hanna who argued, "You can't stomp the romance. Owls and tents and s'mores are all just part of that night… every perfect minute of it."

"I mean come on guys… you remember your first times." Hanna continued, then gave a small shrug as she said, "Well, those of us who have traded in their v-cards already."

"Maybe not everyone's first time was owls in the wind and moonlight beams." Cory said with a shrug as she looked back down to her cup of coffee where she absentmindedly picked at the cup sleeve.

"Well how would we know?" Aria said with a laugh, "You never gave us any details!"

"Because it wasn't that great." She laughed.

"You mean no candles? No romance?" Hanna asked, her voice almost in a gasp as if that were how _everyone's_ first time went.

"I'm so not talking about this." Cory declined arching an eyebrow at her as Hanna continued to push, "Come on, I told you guys everything!"

"Yeah, even some things we didn't want to know." Emily said with a slight cringe on her face at remembering Hanna spilling every messy detail to them and not holding anything back.

"With as many detail as I shared, you owe me something about your first time." The blonde said looking to Cory. They all knew their friend had lost her virginity before Alison ever went missing, the most details they'd gotten out of her was that that it was with the older guy she'd been seeing. But she wouldn't tell them much more than that.

"What do you want to know?" Cory sighed as she took a drink from her coffee and stared Hanna down.

"Where was it?"

"In the guy's bedroom." She answered truthfully, not admitting that her friends were just down the hallway sleeping at the time.

"Who was it with?"

"Not answering that part…" She said then quickly turned the questioning around on Hanna as she asked, "So have you and Caleb gotten another opportunity since the night in the woods."

"Not since he moved into the guest room, but we do have plans." She admitted, the wide smile spreading over her features and seeming to light up her entire face.

**~(Flashback)~**

_After tossing and turning again on the floor in Alison's room for the millionth time, Cory sat up and looked around at her friends who were all scattered across the room after a slumber party where they practically ate their weight in popcorn and pizza and watched a marathon of sappy love movies and romantic comedies._

_Everyone else had passed out about an hour ago but for some reason Cory just couldn't fall asleep. Raising up slightly she reached over for the nearest glass but sighed when it was empty. Rather than try to locate another cup in the darkened room she decided to artfully step around her sleeping friends which worked until she kicked Emily who shot straight up and asked, "Are you okay?"_

"_I'm fine, Em. Just going to get a glass of water… go back to sleep. Sorry." she apologized lingering by the door until her friend laid back down and was still again._

_Letting out a sigh of relief, she walked out of Alison's room and closed the door behind her, before quietly descending the stairs and making her way through the dark living room and into the equally dark kitchen. Pausing in front of the open refrigerator she almost screamed when the lights turned on in the room. Whirling around she saw Jason standing by the light switch as he flashed her a smile and asked, "What are you looking for?"_

"_I don't know, I just can't really sleep." She admitted, smiling back at him. They'd been spending more and more time together lately. Cory even found herself coming over to the DiLaurentis house when she knew Alison wouldn't be there so she could have some alone time with Jason._

"_Yeah me either." He admitted as he walked over and opened a cabinet and retrieved a glass liquor bottle before he shook it lightly and muttered, "I'm hoping this helps."_

_Nodding she grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and drank some of it down before the pair left the kitchen and headed upstairs, Cory paused at Alison's closed door and looked over to where Jason was at his own door._

"_Night." She said as she started to grab onto the doorknob and open the door but stopped when Jason said, "If they're all sleeping what's the point of going back in there?"_

"_What if they wake up and come looking for me?" she whispered to him._

"_Right…" He nodded, "It could be end of your reputation if they found out you were talking to me."_

"_Shut up." She laughed, "It's not like that, it's just…" Her voice trailed off not really having a different excuse._

"_Goodnight." He said as he started into his room, looking over his shoulder when he heard her light footsteps following him._

_They half paid attention to a movie on TV and spent the rest of the time talking while he drank and she had a few sips, barely enough to get buzzed because the last thing she needed to do was get drunk and stumble back into Alison's room in the middle of the night stepping and tripping over everyone._

_It still took some getting used to, the idea of actually being friends with him. After so long of hearing certain things about a person, you tend to buy into what the rumors say but he was nothing like what everyone else thought._

_Yeah, he was a stoner half the time and she was pretty sure the closest thing he drank to water was beer but he was smart, smarter than a lot of people she'd met and he marched to the beat of his own drum –something that was looked down on in Rosewood, but was becoming something she admired in him._

_Once the movie ended and she saw it was after two in the morning, not to mention he'd gotten pretty drunk, she said, "I better get back to my friends."_

_Her voice was quiet, barely audible over the infomercial that had come on the local TV station. Standing up he swayed for a moment before regaining his balance and stopped her at his closed door as he said, "Or you could stay a little longer."_

_Turning around to face him, she'd planned on reminding him how late it was but she didn't get the opportunity to as his mouth smashed against hers. She could taste the notes of alcohol on his tongue and his movements were slightly rougher, and sloppier than the times they'd kissed before but she still felt like she couldn't get enough of him._

_His hands rubbed down her sides, fingertips digging into her hips and there was a hungriness in the way his mouth against hers, like he also couldn't get enough and her stomach jumped as she realized what he'd meant by saying she could stay with him a little longer. _

_He didn't mean to sit and talk more or find another movie to watch, he meant he wanted her to stay –that he wanted more than just a kiss from her. He wanted all of her. _

_Swallowing hard as his mouth trailed from her mouth down to her neck, she breathed in and out at a rapid pace her heart racing inside of her chest both from desire and fear; she'd never went all the way with a guy before. And she'd certainly never expected it to be like this… rose petals and candlelight was how she pictured her first time. Not in the moons harsh glow seeping in from broken blinds on an unmade bed in a room where judging by the scent in the air, there had to be rotten food under the bed or under one of the piles of clothes._

_No, she hadn't pictured it like this at all. About the only thing that felt right about the moment was that it was with Jason. Since he'd first kissed her, she'd thought about this but she'd figured it would be way in the future… maybe after at least a few proper dates or something._

_But this was Jason DiLaurentis, there wasn't really much of anything proper about him and that was what drew her to him in the first place. _

_Cory's hands gripped onto the back of his head and neck as she kissed him back, matching the urgency in his movements and actions. _

_By the time they'd made it to the bed and her shirt was off, her stomach was in a tight ball of nervous flutters and anxiety. It felt like it was too late to turn back, as if things had already gone too far. Of course she knew she had the right to say no and stop what was happening at any point, but she wasn't sure she wanted too. Especially not once his shirt was gone and she trailed her slightly trembling fingers over his solid chest and the muscled planes of his stomach._

_She was sure of a few things, she was extremely attracted to him on far more than just a physical level and to be honest she couldn't picture going this far with anyone else but him. But the farther things got the more her desire for him was outshined with the growing fear of what was happening. This was a life changing moment, and even though she knew she wanted to go there with him one day –she wasn't so sure she wanted it to be when her friends were just down the hallway and asleep and she wasn't entirely sure if he really liked her that much or was just drunk and horny._

"_W-wait." She stammered against his mouth in the middle of a drunken, messy kiss._

"_Yeah?" He questioned, raising up some as he was now above her in the bed. _

_Both of their shirts were gone and her sleeping shorts were down far enough that her underwear was visible and his jeans were down to his knees. Things had moved fast, very fast and judging by the hardened bulge she could feel against her inner thigh through the soft fabric of his boxers, she knew she was having the same effect he was on her –physically at least._

"_Do you like me?" She whispered, her hazel eyes wide as she stared up at him, awkwardly holding onto his strong upper arms because she wasn't sure what else to do with her hands at that point._

"_What?" He whispered back with a small laugh._

_She opened her mouth to repeat the question louder than before, but he silenced her as she claimed her lips in another kiss that she felt the tingles from over her entire body. Pulling back he said, "Of course I like you."_

_Smiling and pulling his face back down to hers, she tried to push her fears to the side and remind herself how much she liked him and that he liked her too. Which worked for the time being, while he got his own jeans off leaving him in just his boxers, but when his hands worked their way around her back and found the clasps to her bra, she broke the kiss and wriggled out of his arms some as she admitted something she was pretty sure he already knew, "It's just… I've… never done this before."_

"_You want to though, right?" He asked, his face just inches above her as his eyes bore into hers and he waited on her answer._

"_Um, yeah… totally." She nervously breathed out, her eyes still wide but she pushed the second thoughts from her mind as she pulled his face back down to hers and tried to focus on the way his every kiss and touch made her feel._

**~(End of flashback)~**

Cory looked down to the table and sighed, if she was being honest she didn't regret what happened; not really. But it was just another example of her agreeing and doing something before she was really ready for it. Growing up she'd done that a lot, especially after meeting Jason. She had no idea what she was getting herself into with the drugs and drinking –she considered that was probably why those things had became vices for her. She'd never been particularly comfortable in her own skin –not back then at least.

Hearing laughing, Cory and her friends looked over to see Hanna's ex-boyfriend Sean sitting down at a table with Paige.

"When did that start to happen?" Aria spoke for the entire table as they watched them in shock.

Sean and Paige seemed to be on an extra friendly level, talking quietly and laughing amongst themselves as they sat a table alone and ate their breakfast.

Emily watched them with a hurt expression, her friends' didn't know that she'd been out on a date with Paige and had really felt a connection to her. The only problem was, she was still afraid to admit to anyone who she was really was that she was into girls so Emily had told her they couldn't sneak around. It had been a long, scary journey to get where she was today and if she had to start sneaking around again, she felt like it might mentally set her back and she couldn't do that to herself.

But she couldn't deny it still hurt seeing Paige getting cozy with someone else.

Seeing her friend's expression but getting the wrong idea about it, Hanna said, "Oh Em, don't worry about it. It's totally cool. I mean the breakup was way messy but Sean's a good guy. I mean he should be happy. Everyone should be as happy as I am."

"Wow…" Aria breathed, surprised at how well Hanna was taking it.

"Yeah, that's very mature of you, Han." Cory offered with a smile.

"Well, people can change and grow." She said before her eyes widened and she excitedly clapped her hands together, "You know, maybe I should practice my surprise face when he gives the owl to me!"

They all laughed as Hanna made several attempts to come up with a genuinely surprised expression.

"Spencer, hey!" Corry greeted as the final member of their group came up and sat down at the table with them, her nearly make-upless face shielded by a hat she'd chosen.

"Are you okay?" Emily questioned.

Not giving her a chance to respond to anyone Aria added, "Yeah, we didn't think you were coming in today…"

"I had to be someplace other than my house."

"Are the cops still there?" Hanna asked, leaning in some so other nosey students wouldn't be able to eavesdrop on them.

"They came and went…"

"They actually took things?" Aria gasped, none of them still able to handle the shock of Spencer's house being searched by police.

"Not so much. My mom says they did it just to shake me up."

"What did they take?" Emily asked, her forehead lined with concern.

"Um, things from my jewelry box, things from my closet… a couple pairs of shoes." Spencer explained, not wanting to rehash the traumatic experience.

"Wait!" Hanna gasped, "Not the tory burches?"

"Hanna." Aria sighed. Out of all things, she was worried about which designer label shoes the police had taken, not the fact that they had enough evidence to actually get a judge to sign off on the warrant.

"No, some sneakers." Spencer laughed, thankful for the lighthearted moment –no matter how small. "They wanted my laptop but my mom said no; it wasn't in the search warrant so they couldn't have it."

As a somber silence fell over the table, Spencer said, "Look, you guys should know there's a chance they might try to pull this on you too."

"Search our houses?" Cory asked her eyes wide.

"My mom says it's a possibility. You guys, I'm so sorry."

"No, it's not your fault." Aria assured her.

"Yeah, we know who's responsible for this." Hanna backed Aria up and Emily and Cory nodded along with her.

"I just, I feel like I should have known that trophy was some sort of trap. It's like I can hear A laughing in my head." Spencer said frustrated, as she leaned back in her seat and looked around.

"Does A sound like Jenna?" Hanna asked what everyone was thinking about.

Spencer's phone played it's incoming text alert and everyone tensed until she assured them, "It's my mom. She wants me to come home." Rubbing her hands over her face she asked, "Walk me out?"

**~(The next day)~**

The group of friends sat down at lunch and Emily and Aria regretfully told Hanna about the one sided phone conversation they'd overheard from Caleb earlier that day.

"No." Hanna stubbornly argued, "You heard it wrong."

"We heard what we heard, Hanna." Aria apologized.

Neither of them had wanted to hurt her but knew she deserved the truth.

"No, you heard what you heard, but you got it wrong." She argued with them. In her mind there was no way Caleb could have been talking to another girl, especially not after they'd slept together.

"He was talking to another girl and you could tell there was a lot of history." Emily admitted.

"What happened to being all happy for Hanna? Where'd all that go?"

"Hanna we do want you to be happy." Cory assured her, she wasn't there to overhear the conversation but knew her friend's wouldn't make something like that up.

"Then you shouldn't tell me because it's not true." She snapped.

"Let's say for arguments sake, that it was true… wouldn't you want to know so you could be prepared and find out what's going on?" Spencer asked.

"No, not after we…" Her voice trailed off and she cleared her throat, "No, you just… you heard wrong. He could have been on the phone with his foster parents or something or even his social worker, you don't know."

Seeing how deeply hurt and upset Hanna was, Aria nodded, "Okay, maybe you're right… we might not have heard it exactly how we thought."

Emily shook her head, she had no desire to hurt her friend either but she needed Hanna to be prepared for what Caleb might be doing behind her back, "Hanna, we heard what Caleb said and you have to know the truth. I think he's with someone else and hasn't told you."

"No, Caleb has told me everything and I told him everything." She quickly countered.

"Wait… everything?" Cory asked, dropping her plastic fork into her salad bowl as she leaned forward and stared at her.

"Not, everything –everything. But I did tell him all about me and what you guys are trying to say… it's not him, trust me." Hanna defended, ready to go to battle for Caleb if she needed too.

"Guys, maybe we are being a little bit paranoid." Spencer suggested, trying to tone the mood down and calm Hanna.

"It's possible." Cory agreed.

Nodding Spencer continued, "With everything that's going on, we're looking at things too closely. We're getting these details but can't see the big picture."

"Guys…" Aria exclaimed, causing everyone to follow her gaze where they saw Jenna walking through the cafeteria wearing the owl pendant on a ribbon from her neck. The same owl pendant that Hanna had found in Caleb's bag.

After school and several failed attempts to get Caleb to answer his phone, Hanna found her friend's outside where Spencer had texted her to meet them.

She explained how she'd seen Jenna in the courtyard and it wasn't just an owl pendant, it was a really decorative flash drive that she'd seen Jenna put in her computer, which meant that Caleb had to have been passing her some kind of information.

"Passing her information? What kind of information" Emily repeated back, shaking her head.

"Yeah, what was even on the flashdrive?" Cory nodded, hoping her friend had managed to get a look at the computer screen too, but she hadn't.

"I couldn't see, but it could have been anything." Spencer admitted.

"Anything?" Aria asked.

"Well, anything from Hanna's computer… I guess."

"Caleb the hacker." Aria scoffed.

"Wait, do you guys think maybe that's who Jenna was talking to when Caleb heard her write down the number?" Cory gasped, as the wheels in her brain started turning and piecing things together.

"Wait, 214 has to do with Caleb?" Aria repeated back, her eyes wide with the thoughts of what that could all mean for the group.

"Slow down, you know what you're saying right?" Emily cautioned, a she saw the heartbroken expression on Hanna's face.

"That Jenna plus Caleb equals A." spencer nodded.

"No, he can't be doing this." Hann argued, still having trouble accepting the entire thing, "Whatever it is, it can't be this…and it can't be here."

"None of us want this to be true." Spencer assured her, "Has he called you back yet?"

"No." Hanna sighed, then seeing her friends avoid her eyes she clarified, "Not yet. You guys don't know what this would mean if it's true…"

"Yeah, we do." Emily sympathized.

Unable to take it any longer, Hanna turned and headed back into the school leaving her friends behind.

"Wait!" Spencer called after her but Aria stopped her from going after Hanna, knowing that their friend needed some time alone to cope.

When her phone went off from her pocket, Cory took it out and held her breath when she saw the text was from A:

'_What do you suppose your friends would think if they found out about you and Jason? Better tell them before they see this… Kisses –A'_

Just as she finished reading the text a picture attachment showed up, which she opened to reveal a picture from her admittance form from the rehab facility she'd been in after moving away from Rosewood.

"Cory, you okay?" Emily asked, seeing the expression on her face.

"Uh, yeah… yeah, I'm fine." She lied, forging a smile before excusing herself from the group and heading home, with a very big decision on her mind. Openly admit that she had been seeing Jason behind everyone's backs before Alison was killed or let her friends know that she couldn't get a handle on her bad habits and it landed her in rehab.

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><p><strong>AN – Thank you all so much for reading! ^_^ I hope you guys all liked the story. I know I just updated a few days ago, but since I'm a few chapters ahead for this story, I thought I'd go ahead and post one again.**

**Thank you so much to Pluv143000, BloomingBlueMoon85, Lucy Greenhill, Heartless-Princess33, RHatch89, Momsen-xxxx, SmellYourScentFormiles, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Emmettluver2010 and to the 3 guests who review the last chapter. **

**I appreciate the support so much and I can't wait to share the rest of Cory's story with you all.**


	5. Echoes Knocking on Locked Doors

**Whispers in the Dark**

**- Chapter Five – Echoes Knocking on Locked Doors **

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><p>Cory sat down with her friends at the grille as Spencer told them how they'd found traces of the sweater with Alison's blood on it caught in one of her bracelets, and her mom was doing everything she could to have the evidence thrown out.<p>

The past few days had been especially hard for most of the group. Hanna was still having trouble trying to cope with how Caleb had used her. Finding out that Jenna paid him to make himself 'available' to Hanna, had completely flipped her world upside down.

"Do you think somebody rubbed that sweater on your bracelet?" Cory asked her friend.

"Somebody?" Emily asked with raised brows, "Try Ian. He's been doing everything he can to make you look guilty… your parents should hire you a 24 hour bodyguard."

"What about Jenna? What if she paid Caleb to get that bracelet? Aria guessed and Cory looked over to see Hanna eating one chip after another from the appetizer of chips and dip.

When Emily pointed out that Caleb had never been in Spencer's house, Aria argued that he didn't exactly need an invitation. A seemed to be able to get into anywhere at any point.

Looking past her friends to where there was a display of mannequins set up outside for the upcoming founders festival, Spencer said, "Guys… I think somebody's watching us."

"Those are for the festival." Cory reminded her, shivering slightly at how creepy the figures were.

"If that's really what Rosewood's founding family looked liked, how'd they ever get anyone to move here?" Aria said under her breath.

"And why were they allowed to reproduce?" Spencer added on, causing Cory to laugh as she took a drink of her water and shook her head.

Her friend's continued to talk about the possibility of Caleb really being involved and working with A, while Hanna asked them not to use his name –while Cory sat in silence; stirring the ice in her water as she debated a way to even start the conversation of telling her friends that she'd been hooking up with Alison's brother.

She'd been given an ultimatum by A, either own up to that or have her confidential files from rehab forwarded to her friends.

They all knew before she moved away that she'd gotten even more out of control with her alcohol use, even binge drinking to the point that she wound up in the hospital a few times. They were also aware that she'd started spending the majority of her time high not too long before Alison died, and it had gotten even worse after she'd gone missing. But what they didn't know was that her family had moved away mainly to cover up the fact that she was getting put in rehab because she'd gotten so out of control.

Cory looked around at them and considered that them finding out about her and Jason was the lesser of two evils. They were her best friends, and she knew they wouldn't go around telling everyone or make her feel ashamed about rehab but it was embarrassing to her –that she started something she couldn't fix on her own.

When her phone went off with a text message she looked down and saw it was from A:

'_Secrets might be what keeps us all close, but they can also lead to your downfall. Your choice; your stent in rehab or your stoner ex. Better talk before time runs out… tick…tock. –A'_

Hanging her head she rubbed her hands over her face and looked around, wondering why it was so important to A she outted herself for something in her past she wasn't so proud of. Was there even a point to this, did A have an endgame or was it all just to make her feel humiliated?

Either way time was running out, taking a deep breath she started to get the courage to just tell them, to completely out herself before A got the chance but she didn't get to when Hanna said, "If Caleb's gonna talk to anyone, he'll talk to me."

"Will you be able to do that?" Emily softly asked.

"For Spence, yeah… I will." She said, her tone more confident than she felt.

"Thanks Han." Spencer said, sincerely and then smiled at the waitress who brought them back their receipt after taking their payment.

"You guys ready?" Aria asked as she stood up and pulled her coat on.

Everyone else followed suit except for Cory who remained in place staring down at her half empty plate of food.

"Cor?" Emily asked, noticing she wasn't following them.

"You okay?" Aria asked.

"Uh, yeah… I'm fine." Cory lied, offering a smile as she stood up and followed them out of the grille.

**~(The next day)~**

"Hey dad, can I ask you something?" Cory questioned as she sat down at the tall kitchen island with her bowl of cereal next to her dad who was finishing up his toast.

"Sure, I still have a few minutes before I have to head in to work." Austin nodded, taking a drink of his coffee and turning slightly to give her his full attention.

"Back before we moved here… when I started getting really bad with drinking and drugs, why did the whole family have to move instead of you just sending me off for a few months to rehab?" She questioned, watching his face closely.

"Cory…" He sighed, shaking his head. If there was anything he didn't like to talk about, it was his or his family's failures and it was abundantly clear that he considered part of her life something they needed to sweep under the rug and hide.

"No, dad… I'm serious."

"We moved for several reasons. It was hard to keep living in the same house that your little brother lost his life in… and then once your friend went missing, your mother and I decided it was just better to get out of Rosewood, get a fresh start." He explained, taking another drink of his coffee and avoiding her eyes.

"I get that, but you guys made sure that we were entirely moved out of state before you sent me to rehab. It's not like you shipped me off and then got moved and settled. You did that because you didn't want anyone to know, right?" She guessed, swallowing hard as she pushed her cereal bowl away from her suddenly not feeling the least bit hungry.

His eyes lingered on the granite countertop and he declined to answer her question.

"Dad…" she started to say, but he cut her off.

"Cory, stop it. I mean think about it, do you really want people to know that you were in a rehab treatment facility?"

She stayed quiet he nodded as he slid off the tall chair at the island and said, "Exactly."

He put his glass and plate in the sink before he paused next to her and said, "I need to get going. I have a few surgeries scheduled today, so it might be pretty late before I get home… depending on how late they run."

"It's okay, I'll probably stay with a friend tonight… Hanna and her boyfriend just broke up, so I might swing by her place with takeout to check on her." Cory answered, avoiding his eyes.

"Alright, text and let me know where you'll be tonight if you don't stay home." He instructed as he pulled his coat on and leaned down, kissing the top of her head before he left the house.

Once she was alone, Cory hung her head and rubbed her eyes. She knew deep down her dad was probably doing what he thought was best, but to her it just felt like he was ashamed of her and in all honesty she regretted a lot of things too. But not to the extent he did.

**~(The next day)~**

"I can't believe you actually took Hanna's advice and made a fake profile to spy on Mr. Fitz!" Cory exclaimed as she sat on Aria's bed and looked at her friend's open laptop.

"It's not really to spy…" Aria defended looking over her shoulder as she stuffed some clothes into an overnight bag for the weekend.

"Yes, it is!" Cory argued, "Why don't you just ask him about it?"

"I will… once I know the right questions to ask." Aria said, as she walked over to the bed and picked up the shirt she'd laid out earlier. Folding it up, she tucked it into the bag and then whipped her head around when her computer beeped.

"Jackie accepted your fake request." Cory filled her in and scooted over as Aria rushed to the bed and plopped down, grabbing her computer as the two friend's stared at the screen.

"You really don't think I should do this?" Aria asked, when she saw the way her friend was looking at her.

"I think that you've never even met this Jackie Molina and you're letting her come between you guys. You love him and no one should be able to make you second guess that… or doubt yourself." Cory explained how she felt as she absently played with the fringe on the side of one of her friend's decorative throw pillows.

"That's… really good advice, actually." Aria said, then looked at her as she asked, "Where is that coming from?"

"I was, uh… I was sort of with this guy for a while before I moved. And in the beginning when we were really starting to get closer… it was the most honest thing I've felt. I just, connected with him in this way that I didn't even think was possible and I was so, so happy." She admitted, a smile spreading over her lips before she could contain it.

Aria smiled with her as she asked, "So what happened?"

"Alison found out." Cory admitted, shaking her head, "And she made me feel like it was something I needed to be ashamed of, that I needed to hide because you guys wouldn't approve. I had this really honest, pure connection with someone and it was the greatest thing I'd ever felt…and Ali took that from me."

Aria opened her mouth to say something, but before she could Cory kept talking, "Looking back now, I just really feel like I would have done things differently, you know? I guess basically what I'm saying is… what you and Mr. Fitz have is real and you shouldn't let anyone take that away from you."

Taking a deep breath, Aria reached down and moved the mouse curser above the 'remove friend' option, before she made up her mind and clicked it, from there she went on to delete the entire page as she said, "You're right… I just need to talk to Ezra about this."

Beaming a proud smile, Cory nodded, "Yeah, I think that's the best option here."

"So…" Aria questioned, "Who was this guy… the one you had that amazing connection with?"

"Oh, he was just this older-" Her voice trailed off and she shook her head at herself. Lying about that time in her life had pretty much become second nature, she'd go straight to a lie or avoiding the truth instead of even thinking for a second about being honest.

"He was…uh, it was Jason." She finally admitted.

"Jason…?" Aria questioned, her voice trailing off as she waited for her to give a last name.

"Jason DiLaurentis."

"Oh my god!" Aria gasped, her eyes wide as humanly possible, "Ali's brother?"

"That's the one." Cory admitted, waiting to see her reaction. She'd been hiding it for so long that she wasn't even sure what a reasonable response to that would be.

The dead silence of the room was more unsettling than if her friend would have screamed or something.

"Say something… anything…" Cory pleaded, watching her with her own set of wide eyes.

"Wow, I'm sorry… just… wow." She finally exclaimed, before she cleared her throat and realized out loud, "And Ali knew?"

"Yeah, she found out. I thought at first she was going to be so mad she'd stop talking to me, but it wasn't like that all. Instead she made me feel like I was doing something awful, that feeling the way I did about him was wrong or something and that no one else should know… all while pretending to be such a great friend." Cory scoffed remembering back to when Alison had first found out.

"Yeah, that sounds like Ali. Not getting mad over something like that because she's actually just dying to use it against you at some point."

Cory nodded, feeling like for the first time in a really long time, she could actually breathe.

"Do the others-"

"No." Cory quickly answered, "You're the first person, I've told. I'm going to tell everyone else… but I really want them to hear it from me."

"Don't worry. I won't say anything, I promise." Aria assured her, as the girls stood up from the bed and she hugged her; both of them feeling closer than before and mutually sharing in a long needed sense of relief.

**~(That night)~**

Cory had been walking around the founder's festival for a while, she'd played a few games and visited the hospital staff sponsored tent where her dad was working for a while before she spotted Spencer outside of the fun house, and started towards her to see if she wanted to skip the rest of the festival and go do something else. She'd jogged after her but her friend had already gone inside and couldn't hear her name over the loud music and sound effects.

Cory paused and stared up to the large imposing prescience of a cynical clown face, who's mouth formed the entrance to the fun house.

Reaching into her pocket she looked down to her last two tickets she'd been planning on using for another chance at the bottle fishing game where you could win a pet rabbit from. But instead she forked the tickets over and walked inside, hoping she could easily locate her friend. Soon it became clear that wasn't going to happen when a few middle schoolers pushed their way past her giggling and screaming as a pair of arms cut the isle off and separated one of them from the rest of her friends.

Cory stood in place and watched as the younger students took a right hand turn and disappeared into the funhouse. She waited until the arms went out and retracted once more before walking farther in as she called out, "Spencer?"

A part of her figured yelling was pointless with both music and creepy laughter and sound effects echoing through the structure. As she watched a manic clown statue being shook and dangled from some cables over to the side a loud, almost painful blast of air sprayed from a contraption on the wall and caught her off guard as she gasped and took a few steps back when the laughter started up again.

She'd never been a fan of places like this, but now she was wondering why anyone thought this was fun.

Turing around she planned to just go out the way she came in and see if she could find Spencer but once she turned around she realized she didn't remember if she'd turned right or left and now had no idea which way to go. She'd never really had a strong sense of direction, but faced with all sorts of neon obstacles in black light and even a spinning spiral on the far wall that could make you dizzy in seconds –she realized her best bet of making it out of there would be to just continue the way she'd been going.

There had to be an exit coming up soon.

After getting disoriented again from another spinning spiral piece in the wall, she closed her eyes and turned around. Quickly regretting the decision when she saw red paint on the wall, glowing in the black light with a dripping effect like blood that spelled out: _Shut up or I'll shut you up -A_

"Spencer!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, her first concern no longer being lost in the funhouse but for her friend's safety.

Breaking into a directionless run and screaming out her friend's name over and over she ran until she heard someone screaming for help, somehow she managed to locate a section of the wall where one side was supposed to close before the other side opened to let you out. Only it was clear spencer was trapped in between the moving pieces of wall.

"Spencer!" She shouted as she beat on the outside of the wall and pulled with all of her might trying to get it open, but she couldn't find where it was jammed.

Her friend's screams grew louder and louder from inside the claustrophobic space and Cory wasn't even sure if Spencer knew she was there.

Turning she raced off somehow managing to find a way out of the funhouse through one of the back exits, where she literally fell down the small set of stairs and landed to the ground with a thud before screaming, "Somebody help me!"

"Hey, hey… are you okay?" A voice said as an arm slid under hers and brought her up to her feet.

"It's not me, it's my friend…" Her voice trailed off as she realized she was face to face with Ian, and to make matters worse he had a crowbar in his hand.

Swallowing hard she took a few steps backwards but her back collided with the funhouse wall and trapped her.

He looked at her for a moment before he looked down to the crowbar in his hand and asked, "What, you actually think I'm going to hit you with this?"

"I'm not a hundred percent sure that you won't." She admitted, causing him to roll his eyes.

Remembering the fact that one of her best friends was trapped inside she knew what she needed to do, swallowing hard and trying her best attempt at a friendly smile she asked, "Can I borrow that…"

"No." He gruffly answered.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not a hundred percent sure you won't hit me with it." He countered with an arched brow.

Quickly darting to side she started to run around to the front of the fun house where there were people, possibly someone who could help her to help Spencer, or at least witnesses in case Ian decided on using that crowbar against her. But he effortlessly caught up to her and grabbed her arm brining her to a stop right before she could reach the other festival patrons.

"What's going on?" He asked.

Looking down she stared at his hand on her arm as she said through gritted teeth, "Let go of me."

"Not until you tell me what's happening." He ordered.

"Like you don't know…" she breathed. It was a little to convenient that he was just outside of the very same funhouse that Spencer was trapped inside with a crowbar in his hand. She could only assume that he'd use the bar to bend something in the sliding door mechanism to trap someone.

"I really don't, so you're gonna have to fill me in." He said, his tone unforgiving as she stared the teenager down with a unrelenting grip on her arm that was starting to make her fingers tingle in numbness.

"Ian? Cory?" Spencer's mom asked as she walked up to them, looking between them with a confused expression.

"Mrs. Hastings!" Cory exclaimed, relieved to see her as Ian finally let go of her arm.

"What's going on?" She questioned looking between them.

"It's Spencer… she's trapped inside of the funhouse and I tried, but I can't get her out." She blurted out in jumbled words that barely formed a sentence.

"Oh my god…" Mrs. Hastings exclaimed, immediately worried as she looked at the teenager and asked, "You know where she's at in there?"

Cory nodded frantically.

"I'll have them clear the fun house out and get the lights on in there." She said as she turned and briskly started to walk away, until Ian said, "If Cory can show me where Spencer is, I can use this to get her out." He offered holding up the crowbar.

With wide eyes she stared at her friend's mom, silently begging for her to not send her into that funhouse alone with Ian and a crowbar.

"That's a great idea. Thank you Ian." Mrs. Hastings said sincerely.

Moments later Cory and Ian were standing just inside of the fun house, as the where still trying to get the lights on and the creepy effects to stop.

Silently she nodded for him to go on but he pointed out, "You're the one who knows where she is… you lead the way."

Every cell in her body was telling her this was a bad idea, being alone inside of a place like this with an armed Ian Thomas, who if they were right –had an affinity for hitting teenage girls in the back of the head and leaving them for dead.

But this wasn't the time to be thinking about what happened to Alison, this was time to try and get to Spencer before her friend suffered a similar fate.

As Cory led them through the halls she shakily said, "You know… everyone knows we're in here. So if something happens to me… they'll know it was you."

"You mean, if I were to hit over the head with this crowbar… the way I hit Alison with something, they'd know I was guilty right?" He asked, causing her blood to run cold in her veins as she spun and faced him.

"That's your theory, right? That I'm the one who killed Alison, that's why you and your friend's keep trying to frame me?"

Swallowing hard she turned back around trying to locate the spot where she'd heard Spencer screaming, only this time she held her silence. Ian had all but signed a confession agreeing that he was Alison's murderer and now she was having to depend on him to help her save a friend.

"This is it." She called, racing over to the section of the wall where she'd heard Spencer yelling, only now it was silent.

"I don't hear-" He started to argue, but she yelled, "She's in there!"

Ian eyed her for a few moments before he got to work on trying to break the door open, until it finally gave way and slid open to reveal a very terrified Spencer –who stared up to Ian with wide eyes at the sight of the crowbar in his hand thinking he'd came to kill her.

"Spence… thank god!" Cory yelled as she stepped between Ian and Spencer and her friend rushed out, holding onto her as tears streamed down her face.

"Shh…" Cory soothed, "You're okay, you're okay."

"Ian?" Melissa's voice rang out through the now silent funhouse as they finally got the effects and soundtrack shut off.

"Yeah, I've got her… she's fine." He yelled back, stepping to the side to give the girls more room as Spencer's sister and mother found them.

Letting go of her friend, Spencer let her mom wrap her in a tight hug and Cory stepped back, her heart still racing from fear and adrenaline, but so relieved that her friend was okay.

"It took a crowbar to get her out?" Melissa asked, leaning against her husbands side as Ian wrapped an arm around her.

"Yeah, it looks like someone jammed the tracks of the door up really bad." He nodded.

"Come on, let's get you out of here." Spencer's mom said as she kept an arm around her daughter and led her out of the funhouse, with Melissa right on their heels.

Cory looked at the small, confined space her friend had been trapped in and then to Ian who'd freed her and quietly nodded as she said, "Thanks…"

He nodded, but his icy stare gave nothing away as he watched her rush to catch up with everyone else.

**~()~**

It was much later that night that the girls were all at Emily's house after visiting a storage unit near Hollis College. Caleb had told Hanna that Jenna's main reason for hiring him was for finding a key she believed Alison had left with them.

They'd had no idea what it meant until Emily remembered a snow globe gift that Alison gave her once and said it was more valuable than it looked.

Inside the large storage unit the only thing they'd found was Alison's old lunchbox from when she was a child, inside it was a single flash drive. So they'd all gone back to Emily's to see what was on it.

But nothing could have prepared them for what they saw. The flash drive contained many videos, the stars of most of the videos being them, growing up through the years.

"Someone's been spying on us for years." Aria breathed, wrapping her arms around herself as she felt violated.

"And it wasn't Ali…" Spencer realized.

"She's in the videos." Cory nodded, feeling sick to her stomach from the same level of violation her friends were feeling.

"Ali's in a lot of them." Hanna pointed out as it moved onto the next video which was them all in Spencer's bedroom, trying on clothes, joking and dancing around. None of them having a clue they were being watched or recorded.

"Oh my god… that's July 4th." Emily realized on the particular video they were watching, it was them all changing and getting ready mere hours before the Jenna thing.

"She always said it was Toby peeping on us…" Hanna breathed.

"No there is no way this is Toby." Spencer was quick to defend, but didn't need to be. Her friends all knew they were wrong about their assumptions with Toby before.

"It's not… it was Ian." Cory explained, when they all looked at her she explained, "Remember how I told you guys before that I thought Ali might have had a thing for Ian? It was because she told me one time that; the guy she liked, liked to make movies. The only person I ever saw with a video camera glued to their hand was Ian and he obviously had a thing for younger girls. It has to be him."

"Okay, but why did she even have these videos?" Aria questioned, her face a little pale.

"And does he know she had them?" Emily continued.

"Maybe he did… maybe it was reason enough to want to shut her up for good. We were pretty young in some of these videos… Ian could get into a lot of trouble if Alison had turned these videos over to someone with proof he's the one who took them." Spencer explained, all of them sharing a state of shock.

"That's my house…" Cory said as it moved onto the next video.

"And there's all of us in our bikinis…" Emily added when it showed all of the girls filing out of the house ready for a day in and around the pool.

"Well, not all of us in bikinis." Hanna pointed out, looking to where she was wearing a large plain t-shirt over her swimsuit in the video, before she'd lost a lot of weight.

"That's not the point… the point is this is disgusting." Spencer reasoned, closing her eyes and sighing as it moved onto the next video which was them changing clothes and getting ready for a Friday night out at Emily's house.

"Seriously?" She breathed, looking over to her window and thinking someone would have had to be up in a tree to get that video angle on them, "There is video taken from outside of all our houses."

"Is that outside of Ali's house?" Spencer asked leaning closer to where the camera was blurry in focus on a car outside of their late friend's house.

"Yeah, I think so… wasn't that Jason's car?" Emily asked, also squinting to try and get a better look.

The camera zoomed in and you could clearly see two people in the backseat of the car, "Ooh… who's getting down and dirty with Alison's creepy older brother?" Hanna said, with a laugh.

"Oh my god!" Cory gasped, as she and Aria reached forward at the same time to slam the laptop shut so fast Emily's jaw dropped when she thought they'd broken it, but not before everyone saw who it was in the car with Jason DiLaurentis.

Cory felt her face darken as all of her friend's turned and stared at her with matching shocked expression, everyone except for Aria who was giving her a sympathetic look.

"You… and… Jason?" Hanna gasped, as Spencer realized, "That was the older guy you'd never tell us anything about…"

She swallowed hard and wasn't sure if she was going to throw up or pass out. It was bad enough being forced by A to tell her friends something, but she was working up to it. It was an entirely different thing to have all of her friends find out by seeing video footage of them together –and even more disturbing that such video existed. But possibly the scariest thought of all, was what if that wasn't the only video of them out there?

* * *

><p><strong>AN- Thanks so much for reading, I really hope everyone liked the chapter. **

**Did you all see the new episode last night, if so what did you think? I won't spoil anything… other than I have to say I was really disappointed with the ending of the episode and what they did with Jason's character! I'd planned on getting some writing done after the ep but after I watched it, i just couldn't bring myself to write.**

**Thank you to xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Heartless-Princess33, BloomingBlueMoon85, lalaa365, Guest, xxxRena, RHatch89, Momsen-xxxx, Summer, SmellYourScentForMiles, Lucie, Nicole, Lucy Greenhill, Clickforkolsdick, JL and DancingDorisDay for being so kind and showing their support by leaving a review. I appreciate it so much!**


	6. For Whom the Bell Tolls

**Whispers in the Dark**

**- Chapter Six – For Whom the Bell Tolls**

* * *

><p>Cory continued to stare at her friends as they all stared back at her after seeing video footage of her in the backseat of a car with Jason. This certainly wasn't how she'd planned for them to find out.<p>

"How did that… did you guys, even happen?" Spencer was the first to be able to pick her jaw up from the floor and form words as her others helplessly nodded along with her question.

"I really liked him." Cory explained, with a shrug.

"Yeah, that was pretty clear with what we saw on the-" Hanna started to say, until Aria quickly cut her off, "Not helping, Hanna."

"I'm sorry… I just, I don't get it…"

"There's not much to get." Cory breathed, shrugging again, "I think I'd always kind of had a crush on him and one day we just sort of got to talking and he was so different than anyone else I'd met."

"Yeah, because he was a freak –he's always been a freak." Emily pointed out.

"No, he's not. That's just what other people said… people that didn't know him." She quickly defended, "I just…. I thought he was the coolest person I'd ever met. He had all these theories about how in a town like Rosewood there's not really room for mistakes cause people talk and that our parents groom us to be afraid of screwing up at an early age and just… he was the single most non-judgmental person I'd met."

Aria looked down and smiled softy as she saw her friend's lips starting to curve up into a smile, it was clear to her that Cory still harbored these feelings for Jason.

"So he what… gave you his stoner theories and you completely drank the kool-aid?" Spencer guessed, still looking at her like she was out of her mind.

"She drank _his_ kool-aid." Hanna chimed in, causing Cory to roll her eyes as Aria complained, "Ew, gross, Han. Seriously… gross."

"What?" she asked, playing innocent.

"Oh my god…" Emily realized her eyes widening, "I never understood why you started binge drinking and getting high… now it makes perfect sense, that's _all_ Jason ever did."

"It's not like that-" Cory started to say but Spencer cut her off as she agreed with Emily, "How did we not see that?"

"Maybe if you guys would give her a chance to explain…" Aria breathed looking around the group.

"Yeah, okay… I didn't really start that stuff until after I was seeing Jason and spending a lot of time with him, but it's not his fault. And honestly, once my brother died and then Ali went missing, I was just doing a lot of self-medicating, I guess." Cory tried to explain, but she got the feeling none of her friends truly understood where she was coming from. They looked at her like her life couldn't have possibly been bad enough that she needed that stuff to get her through the day.

But they didn't know she was the reason her brother had died, she felt like they couldn't begin to understand the guilt she still carried with her.

"Wait…" Hanna breathed, jutting a finger in Aria's direction a she breathed, "How come you don't seem shocked about this?"

"I found out earlier today." She admitted, and everyone's attention turned back to Cory who sighed and rubbed her forehead as she said, "I was going to tell the rest of you… I just needed a little time, but now everyone knows. So can we focus on the important thing here? Like the rest of these videos and figuring out if this is why Ian wanted Ali dead?"

It was clear her friends still had more questions; questions that she'd no doubt be bombarded with later but for now it got the heat off of her. They all knew she was right, there were more important things happening than the latest shocking revelations of Cory's love life.

They sped through all of the videos containing themselves and most of the others until they saw Jenna on a video, talking to Toby. Where she threatened to tell their parents that he'd forced himself on her if he didn't continue the affair they had going on. But he wanted to stop, he knew it was wrong.

"Shut it off." Spencer demanded and Cory quickly shut the laptop earning a hard stare from Emily who didn't have the money for a new computer if they broke hers.

"Do you realize what these videos are?" Emily questioned.

"They're of us, Ali, Jenna… we're young girls in our bedrooms, changing clothes… we're naked." Aria pointed out, another unnatural chill running down her spin at the thought.

"Exposed." Spencer added in, even with the blinds and curtains drawn in Emily's bedroom, they all still felt violated and exposed from the videos.

"Do you think Ian was watching this and getting off on it?" Hanna asked what everyone else was afraid to even think of.

"We all know he has a thing for young girls." Spencer nodded.

"I feel sick." Emily whispered and Cory nodded as she kept her hands over her own stomach, feeling like she could lose her dinner at any second.

"You guys… in some of these. We were just kids… Ian's been watching us for years." Hanna said.

Nodding Spencer asserted, "And he killed Alison to make sure nobody found out."

"I wish she would have told us about these videos." Cory breathed, and Emily agreed, "Yeah, we could have helped her or done… something."

"Guys, it's not too late to help her." Spencer said as she pulled the flashdrive from the computer and continued, "We can use this to prove that Ian killed Alison."

"How? How do we even begin to do that?" Emily questioned.

"We start by finding out what Jenna knows." Spencer realized out loud, not liking the idea even though it was her own.

"Are you on something?" Aria blurted out, then glanced at Cory from the corner of her eye.

"Yeah, Jenna's at the top of our A-list." Hanna argued, wondering the same thing Aria had asked.

"Look, I get it, okay. But she knows that these videos existed. She was looking for them, that's why she hired Caleb to find that key." Spencer said as she stood from the bed and started to pace the floor in front of them, at the foot of the bed.

"Spence, no. How are we ever supposed to believe anything that bitch says?" Hanna asked.

"No, she's got a point." Cory argued, also standing up from the side of the bed, "This video makes things look, really, really bad for Jenna. We can use it against her… we've been terrified of her since the Jenna thing and now we have something she finally wants."

"And Ali's the one who gave it to us." Spencer nodded, smiling at Cory who returned the smile and hoped their plan would actually work out for once.

**~(At school)~**

"There's Jenna." Emily whispered as she paused by where Hanna and Cory were standing at their lockers.

They looked across the hallway and nodded to Aria and Spencer, as Cory said, "It's go time."

The group of five followed her into the music room where she heard several sets of approaching footsteps and asked, "Who's' there?"

"It's Spencer."

"Who else?" Jenna demanded to know, turning and holding onto the handle of her walking stick.

"Cory."

"And?"

Sighing Spencer admitted, "Aria, Emily and … Hanna."

"Should I call security?" Jenna snapped, remembering her last encounter in the bathroom where Hanna had slapped her.

Cory looked over and saw the expression on her blonde friend's face and she knew Jenna deserved that slap and a lot more for what she'd done.

"Bitch, you couldn't move fast enough." Cory angrily said to her and Hanna held back a laugh as she looked over at her.

Before Jenna could argue with them, Emily got right down to business and admitted, "We have what you sent Caleb looking for. You didn't think it was wrong, but Toby did."

"So you've seen it?"

"Every frame." Spencer coldly responded.

"What do you want from me?"

"The truth, can you handle that?" Hanna finally found her voice.

Sighing and knowing she'd been defeated, Jenna admitted, "Look, when I said Alison came to see me at the hospital –I was telling the truth. But the part about her coming to talk about Spencer; that was a lie."

"We're just supposed to believe you?" Cory asked.

"Yeah, how do we know you're not lying now?" Aria backed her friend.

"You all knew Alison, okay? You knew what she was capable of… it was the day before she went missing and she was on her way home for Georgia. She had just found the video and she couldn't wait to play it for me…" Jenna said as she went on to explain how Alison made a deal that if she didn't say it was the girls who were responsible for the accident, that if she kept their secret –Alison would keep the video under lock and key.

"She was on her way home from Georgia?" Spencer questioned.

"That's what she said." Jenna shrugged, "then she made some joke about her tan and how it was too bad I couldn't see it."

"Did she tell you anything else… anything at all?" Cory asked, trying to read her body language and decipher if she was telling the truth.

"It was a short visit." Jenna admitted, then her voice cracked slightly as she continued, "Look, I've given you what you asked for –what are you going to give me?"

Stepping forward, Cory folded her arms over her chest as she smirked and said, "Come on, Jenna… we're not unreasonable. Same rules apply. You keep our secret and we'll keep yours."

Jenna scoffed, turning her head to face her as if she could see her, "You sound just like Alison…"

Spencer looked at Cory and thought to herself Jenna was right about one thing; Cory did sound a lot like Allison. Clearing her throat, Spencer clarified, "We'll keep it somewhere safe."

When the room fell silent she nodded, accepting what they said because she had no other choice. But as she started to leave the room she turned and reminded them, "We've all made mistakes. Remember… I'm still paying for yours."

Once she was gone and the door shut behind her, they started talking debating whether Jenna had made the story up or not. But it seemed legit. Alison used the video as insurance the day she got it, which could only mean that she'd really been with Ian that weekend at Hilton Head.

"Don't you guys remember how happy Ali was when she got home from that trip?" Cory reminded them, believing Jenna's version of the story.

"Yeah." Spencer nodded, "She was so happy… I think, because for her, the Jenna thing was over."

Hanna scoffed, "Nice of her to share the safety net with us."

"Wait for it girls… wait for it."

Everyone looked at Emily confused and Spencer gruffly asked, "Wait for what?"

"That's what Ali said when we met her at the taxi, maybe this is what we were waiting for?" Emily guessed.

**~(At lunch)~**

Spencer and Cory met up with their friends at lunch after skipping their class before lunch to run to the store.

"We got it." Spencer said as she and Cory sat down at the lunch table with everyone else.

"You're sure Ian can't trace this number back to us?" Aria nervously asked, causing Emily to shoot her a look when she started to annoyingly tap her foot against the floor.

"It's a prepaid phone, I used cash and the number isn't registered…" Spencer started to say before Cory cut her off and pointed out, "Actually, I used cash."

Spencer sighed, "Yeah, because no one carries cash on them nowadays; except for you apparently."

Cory rolled her eyes and laughed, as Hanna proceeded to ask them how they even know about using prepaid cellphones so they couldn't be tracked.

Spencer continued to open the phone packaging and everyone looked over when they heard Ian laughing as he talked to some students across the cafeteria.

"He acts like he doesn't have a care in the world…" Emily sighed, dropping her spoon to her plate.

"It's because he thinks he got away with it." Cory reasoned, her eyebrows knotted in anger as she stared at him across the cafeteria.

"Well, he didn't." Aria asserted, trying to have complete faith in their plan.

Taking a deep breath Spencer reminded them, "We convince Ian that this isn't anything but money. Hopefully that will throw him off of us."

"Agreed." Cory said as she held out her hand for the phone and Spencer handed it to her.

"Remember, we tell him we've got his home movies and we want money. Then when he shows up for the swap…" Spencer continued to remind them, but Hanna cut in as she smiled and held up her own phone, "We make our own movie…"

"Then we'll take that, the flash drive, and the prepaid phone into police." Spencer nodded in agreement,.

"Pretty much the second he responds to that text he's guilty." Aria pointed out, looking to Cory who held the phone in her hands.

"What should I say?" She asked with slightly shaky thumbs.

"Something simple, straight to the point." Emily shrugged and everyone agreed with her.

Sliding the screen up to reveal the keypad of the phone, Spencer gave her Ian's number and Cory entered it then typed as she spoke out loud, "I have Ali's video."

Within seconds, they saw Ian looking down to his phone before appearing to grow nervous as he excused himself from the group and disappeared from sight.

Everyone slouched down in their seats some, feeling let down by their plan. If he didn't respond, they couldn't set up the fake swap.

There was a text alert and everyone jumped, but Hanna sighed as she checked her phone and explained it was just her mom making sure she'd stayed out of bed.

Seconds later the phone went off in Cory's hand and she looked down, smiling as she breathed, "Got him."

"He wants to know what we want." She relayed the message.

"Money." Aria reminded her.

"Yeah, but how much?" Cory sighed, "Too much and he can't come up with it… not enough and it doesn't seem legit."

"Ten thousand?" Hanna asked, and Spencer agreed, "Yeah, that's perfect."

Looking down to the phone, Cory typed out: _Bring $10,000 to Willow Park. 9pm. Come alone_

Taking in a deep breath she looked up to her friends for reassurance, which they all gave her and she hit the send button.

But before they could get a response Mona walked over and loudly asked, "Is this the lets love on Hanna lunch committee?" Before turning her attention to her best friend and questioning, "Feeling better, sweetie?"

"Sorry guys… I just realized I need to… do something." Cory blurted out, wanting away from Mona incase they heard back from Ian. They couldn't very well start openly talking about it in front of her.

Tucking the prepaid phone in her pocket, she practically jumped up from the table.

**~(Later that night)~**

"Hey Spence, I was dropping by to see if you wanted a ride to where-" Cory started to explained before her friend breezed past her out the door of her house and said, "I'm gonna be a little late to that, I need to pick Melissa up… Ian never showed up at the church."

"I'll come with you, once you get her home we can meet up with everyone else?" Cory offered, as she got into the car with Spencer and sent their friends a text letting them know they were going to be running late.

Once they got to the church they found a very worried Melissa pacing back and forth out front in the cool night air. Cory got out and moved into the middle row of seats to let her sit in the front and Melissa got into the car, immediately bringing up how worried she was that Ian never showed up.

"I talked to him this afternoon; he was taking care of the contractor then heading straight to the church." She said, getting agitated and shivering from how long she'd been outside.

"Something is wrong, I can feel it!" She continued, frantically searching her through purse for her phone with no avail. Then she groaned, realizing she'd left it at the church.

"Melissa, you have to relax. Please, this cannot be good for the baby." Spencer cautioned.

"Spoken like a sister who actually cares…" Melissa responded, her teeth chattering as spencer argued that she did care.

Cory looked around until she found a blanket folded up behind her seat and said, "Here Melissa, you must be freezing…"

"Thanks." Melissa quickly said as she leaned forward in the seat some and Cory awkwardly looked down to the blanket in her hands before she unfastened her seat belt and leaned forward, draping the blanket around her best friend's sister, who hugged the soft fabric to herself.

"Do you want me to go back to the church?" Spencer asked as Cory sat back in her seat, and was getting ready to put her seatbelt back on.

"Yes." Melissa agreed, hopping the next time she tried to call Ian, he'd answer the phone.

Cory thought about texting or calling to let her friends know they'd be a little later than they thought, but never got the chance when a car came out of nowhere and hit them on the passenger side.

There was a deafening loud honk from the other car and blinding headlights as it happened both in slow motion and with lightening fast speed.

Cory pinned her eyes shut and tried to prepare herself for what was happening, but there was no way to prepare for that. They were hit with such force it pushed them off the side of the road, and caved in her door so far it hit painfully hard into her ribs, for a few white hot seconds of pain the world was silent before the sound of screeching tires and busting glass not only filled her ears but rained down into her lap.

The next sound she heard was Spencer screaming, "Melissa?"

"Is she okay?" Cory asked, as she tried to move, but a severe pain radiated down the entire right side of her body and she couldn't catch her breath.

"I… I don't know." Spencer admitted, as her sister lay passed out in the seat beside her.

Cory looked around, her head still pounding as the night air was thickly laced with the sound of the car horn from the car that hit them. Knowing her door wouldn't work, she crawled across the middle seat and out of the other side.

"Oh my god…" Spencer breathed as she exited the car at the same time and saw Cory leaning against the open door for support. Her face and arms were cut up from the broken glass and her eyes seemed to not entirely be focusing, not to mention she remained slightly hunched over as she held onto her right side ribs.

"I'm fine." She assured her, truing to ignore that every breath felt like someone was hitting her in the chest with a sledge hammer.

The friends walked around the passenger side of the car where Melissa was just starting to come too, they got her door open and tried to keep her calm as they waited for paramedics to arrive. Once they got there, Cory staggered over to the ambulance and started to tell them about Melissa but one look at her and they wanted to get her to hospital.

"No, you don't understand… I'm fine but she's pregnant." Cory finally yelled loud enough over their talking, that she got them to listen before she made her way back over to the car and assured her best friend's sister that they were going to get her out of there.

She stood back with Spencer as they carefully got Melissa out of the car and onto a gurney, both teenagers refusing any sort of medical treatment until they'd gotten her loaded into the ambulance.

The next several minutes passed in a painful blur, as they ushered both girls into the back of the ambulance and sped towards the hospital.

Once inside some nurse Cory didn't know practically pushed her into a wheelchair and whisked her straight into an ER room.

There was a nurse, a tech and a doctor all firing questions at her left and right but she was still in a daze. Every time she closed her eyes all she could see was the blinding yellow headlights and the metal crunching noises were all she could hear.

She couldn't really focus on anything until she heard a familiar voice.

"Cory?"

Looking up she saw her dad, dressed in his white doctors coat as he stood next to her bed and looked her over.

"What happened? I heard there was some sort of car accident, are you okay?"

She looked around, for the first time noticing the other hospital staff was no longer in the room. It was just them.

"I'm fine." She lied, still in agonizing pain on her right side.

"You don't look fine… but I'm glad you're okay." He said as she stepped closer to the bed and wrapped her in a tight hug before he angrily asked, "Who was driving the car?"

"It's not important… it wasn't her fault, the other car came out of nowhere." She said, her voice muffled against his shirt as she clutched onto him, thankful he was there.

Hearing the door open, she looked up to see the nurse from earlier walk in with a little bucket in her hand as she offered a friendly smile.

"What's happening?" Cory asked, pulling away from her dad's hug and staring at the nurse.

"It's okay, honey… they just want to draw some blood and get you started on some I.V. fluids while we wait for them to run more tests, make sure there's no internal damage." He assured her, rubbing a comforting hand up and down her back.

"Why do I need an I.V?" She asked, her eyes wide.

"It's just going to help... your coloring is sort of off and you're shaking really bad… you might be in some shock and this will just help you stay alert so we can figure out what's going on." He assured her.

He remained in the room while they drew several vials of blood and then started a port for the IV on the inside of her forearm and started her on some fluids.

"How's Melissa and Spencer?" She hurriedly asked her dad once the nurse was gone.

"Was it one of them who was driving?" He returned to his earlier line of questioning.

"Dad…" She groaned.

"You don't need to worry about them, just lay back and try to relax. They'll be coming to get you for x-rays in just a few minutes." He assured her, knowing as much as he wanted to stand there and take care of her –he had a job he needed to do, and patients that were waiting on him.

"Why? I'm fine." She restated but he shook his head, showing he didn't believe her as he pointed out, "Even if I wasn't a doctor… I'd notice how much you're favoring your right side. Hopefully it's just some bruising and nothing too series, but on the chance that something is broken we need to know –it could be fatal if it pierced your heart or lungs."

She nodded, but nervously looked around, she hated hospitals with a passion and this was the last place she wanted to be. It felt like her skin was crawling just sitting in the ER exam room.

A phone beeped from his pocket and Austin sighed as he said, "I need to get back to work, but just lay back and take some deep breaths. I'll come check on you every chance I get." He assured her before kissing her on the top of the head and leaving her alone in the room.

A few minutes passed and she looked around the room, before blowing out a heavy breath and looking down to her arm as she got to work peeling off the tape they'd secured the IV port to her arm with. Once it was gone she pulled it from her arm and let it fall to the floor, watching as a trail of blood ran down her arm until she applied pressure to the small open spot and located a Band-Aid in one of the drawers, quickly sneaking into the staff only bathroom behind the nurses desk she washed and dried the blood from her arm and put the Band-Aid on.

She looked in the mirror, frowning at her appearance and wanting to pull her hair up in a ponytail off her neck, but was pretty sure she couldn't get her right arm up that high without causing herself excruciating pain, so she left it down in disheveled waves with shiny pieces of glass still littering her brunette locks.

Pulling her jacket back on she'd grabbed from her ER room she found Spencer heading down a hallway towards the exit.

"Hey, how's Melissa?" She asked.

"She's stable… but they're not sure about the baby yet." Spencer admitted as she turned to face her and looking shocked that her friend didn't look any better.

"Are we going to meet up with the others?" Cory questioned.

"No, I'm going to the church to find Melissa's phone and maybe Ian if he's there, Melissa isn't going to calm down until he's here.… I think you should stay here."

"I'm not staying here, I'm fine. They just released me." Cory lied, but could tell Spencer wasn't buying the story.

"I'm not staying here." She restated.

"Okay…" Spencer breathed, looking her over again before she continued her walk towards the door, this time a slower rate so her injured friend could keep up.

It took much longer than usual for the walk since Cory was seeming to have trouble standing upright. Even though the church was only a few blocks away, it felt like it took hours to get there and along the way Spencer called to fill the others in on what happened.

After hanging up the phone Spencer looked over at her friend with a pained look as she said, "I'm so sorry, that car just came out of nowhere and-"

"Spence, it's okay. I don't blame you." Cory assured her as they came to a stop just outside of the church building.

"It's just… you're more banged up than me or even Melissa and you got yourself out of the car and got the EMTs to take care of my sister first… you're just being so strong and I don't even know what to do." She admitted, her voice cracking as she faced her in the dim streetlight glow.

"For once Spencer Hastings doesn't know what to do?" She tried to joke, but the humor was lost to the somber mood and guilt Spencer was feeling.

"I'm not that strong, Spence. Right now I just… I don't know, since that car hit us I just feel like I'm going through the motions. If I seem like I'm holding things together right now, it's probably because I have no idea how to handle anything." Cory whispered as she stepped closer and gave her friend a one armed hug with her left side, careful not to jar her right side too much.

"Let's just get Melissa's phone and get back to the hospital." Spencer said, hugging her back before they walked into the church together.

"Why are all of the lights on?" Cory whispered once they stepped inside.

"Hello? Reverend Acker?" Spencer called out but they didn't get a response. Cory started at the back corner of the main room in the church and Spencer started at the front of the pews looking for Melissa's phone.

Cory was knelt down on the floor and not sure how she was going to get up when she heard Spencer gasp, raising her head and looking between the isles she saw Ian was there, as he asked, "Lose something?"

"Melissa left her phone here. We've been trying to call you." Spencer calmly said.

"You know I got the strangest text message today…" He said.

Swallowing hard Cory gritted her teeth and managed to silently stand up, almost blacking out when white hot pain shot through her rib cage. But she held her breath and slowly started to creep up behind Ian, as he continued, "The number was blocked, but I could reply to it."

Seconds later the phone went off in her pocket and he stepped to the side to keep an eye on the both of them.

Looking Cory over he chuckled, "Asking for money… that was clever."

"Ian, look… there's been an accident." Spencer started to fill him in, but he cut her off, "I know, I got the messages, I've just been waiting for you to leave the hospital. Melissa would want me to take care of this."

"What? Like you took care of Ali?" Cory asked, through gritted teeth as she tried to slip her hand into her pocket to dial 911, but he saw her and roughly grabbed her arm stopping her.

"Let go of her. I've got what you want." Spencer called out holding up the flash drive containing the videos.

"You want some popcorn to go with that?" She smirked, before tossing the flash drive to Cory and yelling, "Run!" As she herself ran farther into the church assuming Ian would follow her but he didn't.

Instead he caught Cory right as she was trying to get out of the doors, there was a slight struggle but once he elbowed her in her injured ribs she didn't stand a chance and he easily tore the flash drive away from her, before roughly throwing her against a pew where her body crumpled to the floor and she blacked out.

**~()~**

"You really scared me there for a second…"

Cory's eyes fluttered back open and she looked up to see someone standing over her, dressed in all black with their face shadowed by a dark hood. But she didn't need to see the person's face, she'd know that voice anywhere.

"Ali?" She stuttered, trying to sit up.

"Shh… it's okay, don't try to get up. I think you're hurt really bad."

Cory watched with wide eyes as the figure lowered the hood and showed their identity; it was Alison. Cory's hazel eyes widened as she stared up at her best friend, her lips moving as she tried to ask one of the million questions fluttering through her mind –but she couldn't form a sound.

"I've missed you, so much. You really were my best friend… out of everyone." Alison admitted as she knelt down beside her and brushed some of her tangled hair from her face.

"Does this mean… I'm dead?" She questioned, staring up at her. It was the only logical explanation for being able to see Alison again, but death was supposed to be peaceful and she was hurting so bad.

With a small laugh Alison cocked her head to the side and said, "Do I look dead to you?"

Cory shook her head no and Alison looked around before saying, "I don't have much time, but I had to see you before I left."

"Wait, where are you going?" She asked frantically, trying to sit up again but her friend stopped her.

"A lot of places." Alison smiled, "But it doesn't matter… whoever said the truth will set you free has never had to deal with A, that's for sure. Telling the truth is what got me in this mess."

"Ali, I don't understand…"

"You're not going to, sweetie… not yet at least. Just know that if things were different, I'd be right here with you… but it's not safe for me. It's not really safe for you either, for any of you." She breathed, a look of pain falling over her face before she stood up and started to walk away.

Turning around and giving her a smile over her shoulder before almost seeming to disappear into the darkness when the church doors opened.

Cory struggled to get to her feet; her forehead lined with the intense confusion she was feeling as she cried, "Ali, wait!" but her friend was already out of the church and Cory felt like she had less answers now than she began with.

She tried to take a step, but weakly tripped over her own feet and fell the ground with a painful thud where she remained until she heard the church doors open again and her friends rushed in.

"Did you see her?" Cory asked them, her eyes wide as she stared up to Aria, Hanna and Emily.

"Stay here." Aria instructed to Emily, before she and Hanna raced into the church farther trying to find Spencer before it was too late.

Emily gently helped her up until she was sitting in one of the pews and asked, "See who?"

"N-no one…" Cory breathed, thinking with the way she'd blacked out earlier, she must have dreamt the vision of her friend up. There was no way Alison was still alive, no possible way.

Moments later Hanna and Aria returned with a very shaken up Spencer, who explained that Ian was trying to kill her and would have succeeded but someone in a black hoodie showed up and threw him from the bell tower just in time.

"What?" Cory gasped, causing everyone to look at her.

"Did you say a black hoodie?" Her mind raced and her heart thudded away inside of her chest as she remembered the vision of Alison she'd had –her friend was wearing a black hoodie.

"Yeah." She nodded, "Did you see them?"

"I… I think I might have seen someone run out." She lied, not wanting to sound crazy and say it was Alison. She wasn't sure how much she trusted her own mind at that point. But on the very slim chance that she hadn't imagined it and somehow Alison was still alive, there had to be a reason she'd stopped to talk to her instead of waiting around for everyone to show up.

After the police got there and lined off the scene, they kept the girls inside of the church while they took down their statements and then finally released them to go. By the time they got outside, it looked like half of the town was gathered on the opposite side of the police tape gawking at them.

They were stopped by a police officer who angrily asked them if this was a joke, because Ian's body was nowhere to be found. They followed him back inside where sure enough, his body was no longer hanging from the ropes.

After giving their stories to the officers again, they were released and they made it back outside of the church.

Emily walked with a still very shaken up Spencer and Cory had Aria and Hanna on either side of her, to help keep her upright and from falling down. As the group of five best friends neared the crowds where they saw their parents, they could hear the townspeople talking about them;

"_Those girls knew Alison."_

"_Are they lying?"_

"_Why would they lie?"_

"_Liars!"_

Coming to a stop they looked around as their phones went off, Cory could feel hers vibrating in her pocket but didn't even bother reaching for it –she knew her message would be the same as her friends: _"It's not over till I say it is. Sleep tight… while you still can, bitches. –A"_

"Oh my god…" Hanna breathed as she read the message from her phone and Cory swallowed hard.

Cory tried to take in a deep breath, but it felt like her lungs just wouldn't expand.

"Guys…" She breathed, an airy whine to her voice.

"Cory?" They pretty much asked in unison.

"I lied… I don't… I don't think I'm okay." She admitted, fighting harder to even take in a shallow breath, but it was useless. It felt like all of the oxygen had been forcefully pulled from her world and she was drowning on dry land.

Her eyes fluttered closed, Hanna and Aria gently lowered her to the ground and the last thing she heard before the darkness set in was a chaotic mix of her friend's voices, half of them yelling out her name and the others screaming for someone to call for an ambulance.

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><p><strong>AN- Thanks so much for reading! I know this was a pretty long chapter, but Jason will make an appearance within the next few chapters! ^_~**

**I owe a very big thank you to Heartless-Princess33, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Lucy Greenhill, Momsen-xxxx, SmellYourScentForMiles, xxxRena, DancingDorisDay, EmmettLuver2010, 2 guests, Tina, Emmy and Jenna for being sweet enough to show their support and review chapter 5!**

**For anyone who didn't already know, the link to my Tumblr is up on my profile. I post a lot of fanfiction related stuff on there. Including chapter sneak peeks for this one and a few of my other stories.**


	7. Ready or Not

**Whispers in the Dark**

**- Chapter Seven – Ready or Not**

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><p>Cory's eyes started to flutter open, the sound of machine's steadily beeping filled her ears. For a brief moment she started to panic until she realized where she was, in the hospital.<p>

Pinning her eyes shut she tried to take a deep breath and tell herself that she was okay. It was only then that she felt someone's hand slid out from her own and she froze. The hand was too big to have been one of her friend's.

Her dad would have been there to check on her, but he wasn't exactly the sit by the side of a bed and hold someone's hand type.

When she heard the door to her room start to open she slowly cracked an eye open and looked over that way just in time to see someone's back when they walked out of the room, her other eye opened and they both widened when she realized it was Jason's back.

She opened her mouth to say something but he was already gone.

Looking around she located her nurse's call button and pushed it, moments later one of the nurses came in and said, "Yes?"

"Hi… uh, did you see the guy that was just in here?"

The nurse arched a brow and glanced around the room before shaking her head and pointing out, "It's way after visiting hours…"

"Okay, but I just saw someone leaving my room…"

"I've been at the desk for the past few hours and I haven't seen anyone." She assured her before offering, "Maybe you were dreaming?"

"Yeah, maybe…" Cory breathed, wondering what was happening to her. First she'd imagined seeing Alison at the church and now she'd imagined seeing Jason leaving her hospital room. What was next… dreaming up that Mr. and Mrs. DiLaurentis were there?

With that thought her eyes widened and she looked around her room, squinting and letting out a pained noise as the nurse switched the lights on and said, "While you're awake, I'm going to check your vitals and then page your dad."

Cory nodded, swallowing hard as she laid her head back against the pillows and wished she could be anywhere else. She hated hospitals, always had but after escaping the ER after the car accident –she figured she was lucky they hadn't restrained her to the bed with a lock on the door.

The next morning, after answering questions from the police for almost two hours they finally left and her dad brought her some takeout for lunch.

Sitting in the chair next to the bed, he watched her silently before she asked him, "When can I go home?"

"Probably later today… if not, then tomorrow for sure. Luckily, other than some superficial cuts and bruises you're okay after the wreck, the worst you got from it was some bruised ribs… but nothing's broken." He assured her, as he pulled in a deep breath and continued, "If you'd just stayed in the ER last night, you'd be at home relaxing in your own bed right now."

She avoided his eyes as she started to take her food out of the bag and slowly drank from her soda.

"It looks like you had a panic attack outside of the church… that's why you blacked out, the stress on your lungs from that and already being in pain from your sore ribs."

"Did they find Ian's body yet?" She asked, her eyes hopeful.

"No…"

"You believe me though right, that he was there? That he hurt me and tried to kill Spencer?"

He was silent for a moment before he admitted, "I know that's what you believe… but there is no evidence to back it up."

"No evidence? I'm injured…" She argued, thinking her bruised up side from the struggle in the church and being thrown against a pew should be evidence enough.

"The problem is… your injuries can easily be explained away from the car accident. And since you didn't stick around the ER, your injuries weren't well documented and there is nothing to compare it to." He said, an apologetic look on his face like he wanted to believe her, but just couldn't.

"I'll leave you alone so you can eat." He said as he stood up and added, "I'll see what we can do about you getting you out of here."

"Thanks dad." She softly said in a weak voice, not having the energy to try and argue that she wasn't lying about what happened with Ian.

"Oh, also… I got a phone call from Veronica Hastings earlier this morning. With Spencer still being a person of interest in Alison's murder investigation… it seems like what happened at the church makes it look like the other four of you could be involved too…" Austin started to explain, but his daughter cut him off.

"No, no, no… Ian killed Alison."

"While the police sort through everything, Veronica wants you all to see a grief counselor. Apparently it will look good for you girls, since it appears to them right now that you all just have some sort of obsession with trying to pin her death on Ian Thomas. I have to admit, I think this could be a good thing for you –for all of you." Austin continued, and Cory scoffed as she shook her head.

She had enough one-on-one and group therapy during her time in rehab.

**~(A few days later)~**

Cory sat in silence on the couch between Emily and Aria in their grief counselors office, Spencer was sitting on the arm of the couch. All four of them watching the clock on the far wall as time slowly ticked away while they waited on Hanna.

Their therapist, Anne kept trying to get the girls to open up and talk but they refused to do so until the last member of their group showed up.

Finally the door opened and Hanna walked in, shopping bags in hand as she apologized, "Sorry I'm late, but have you see the sales downtown lately?"

"You must be Hanna, I'm Anne." She introduced herself to the blonde teenager as she took a seat in the chair next to the couch her friends were on.

"So, what'd I miss?" Hanna questioned.

Shooting her a look Spencer explained, "Nothing, we were waiting on you."

With a feigned smile she breathed, "Damn."

"So, tell me about yourselves… how did you all meet?" Anne asked them, watching the group as she spoke.

Slowly, they began to tell the story of how Alison had befriended them all, handpicked them to join the group.

"It really sounds like you all credit Alison for the friendship."

"Yeah, we all became friends because of her." Emily nodded.

Crossing one leg over the other and readjusting in her chair, Anne pointed out, "But she's gone and the five of you still seem very close."

"We weren't always." Emily said, then held her silence when she realized she was the only one who kept talking.

When their therapist continued to stare at them waiting on an answer, spencer admitted, "We lost touch when Ali went missing."

"My family spent a year in Iceland." Aria chimed in and Cory nodded, "Mine packed up and moved to Ohio."

"The rest of us… just sort of drifted." Hanna quietly said.

"What brought you back together?"

When no one answered, she continued, "You don't all have to agree. There are no right or wrong answers here."

"Her death." Spencer admitted.

With widened eyes, Aria corrected, "She mean's when they found the body."

"When they found Ali's body." Cory chimed in with a sad expression.

"Do you think you were looking for closure?"

"We… were looking for answers." Spencer's voice was barely audible as she spoke, and Hanna sat off to the side, nervously twisting her hair around her finger, wishing it was time to go.

"The answer to who murdered Alison?"

They all looked down.

"The five of you don't have to go through this alone. This is a safe place to talk, nothing you say here goes beyond these walls." Anne assured them.

The room fell silent until Aria looked around to her friends and asked, "Do we… do we want to talk about… that thing?"

Slowly, they all started to come around to the idea that they could finally have someone to talk to about being tormented by A, but the feeling was cut short when Aria's phone started to buzz from her purse followed by Emily's phone chiming from her pocket.

They all looked around wide-eyed, thinking somehow A knew what they were planning and was texting a warning to stop them.

"Well, what is it?" Anne asked, picking up on their sudden change in behavior.

"Um, I think our time is up." Spencer apologized, as they all stood up and cleared out of the room.

Once they were outside Aria sighed with relief, "It wasn't A, it as just my mom."

"Mine too… she wants me to come home." Emily said.

Down the sidewalk from them they saw toby leaned against a car, when he saw the group –mainly Spencer, he smiled and started towards them until all the light left his face and they saw Jenna walking towards him.

"Guys…" Cory breathed, nodding to a newspaper dispenser that had all of their pictures on the cover page with the title, 'What really happened?'

The article stated that Ian's car had been found near the train station and his bank accounts showed a withdraw of ten thousand dollars, before it went on to suggest that the girls had made the entire story up because they knew he'd skipped town and wouldn't be there to defend himself.

When they all received a text in unison, there was no doubt in their minds who it was coming from.

"_I spy a liar… -A"_

**~()~**

"What was this SOS about?" Cory asked as she walked into Aria's bedroom and dropped her purse on the desk before pointing out, "If I skip out on too many more dinners my dad's probably going to start insisting I see that damn therapist."

"Sorry… but look." Aria apologized as she stood from her bed and showed her -her cellphone.

As Cory was looking at it, the rest of their friend's filed into the room and Aria explained that as she was leaving Ezra's she got a picture text from A of the desk in his apartment, and once she checked under the rug mat –she saw his spare key was gone.

Cory shivered, thinking how scary it was that A could just come and go from seemingly anywhere.

As they all got sat down Aria explained, "A must have followed me there… and he, she… shim, must have seen me get that key from under the doormat."

"Let me see that." Hanna said and Cory passed the phone to her.

"Okay, all I see are books, photographs, magazines…is that a playboy?" She asked with a laugh.

"What?" Spencer asked as they all leaned in to get a better look at the screen.

"Right there, under that black thing on the cabinet."

"That's a typewriter." Cory laughed shaking her head as Aria nodded, "Han, that's not a playboy that's a play bill."

The text Aria had been asked if she could tell what was missing from the apartment, but Emily thought what was missing wasn't the point, "I don't think what's missing matters. A wants us to know that she can come and go through Ezra's apartment. When is it going to stop? Remember where we were just a few months ago?

"Visiting me in the hospital." Hanna recalled, and Emily nodded, "A just hit Hanna and kept going."

"And A didn't even hesitate before pushing Ian, like it was no big deal." Spencer agreed.

"Because to this person… apparently murder isn't a big deal." Cory sighed, rubbing her eyes and feeling like she may never sleep again.

"I don't want to be sitting next to you guys at another funeral." Emily explained.

The room fell silent and they all exhcmaged looks, knowing what she was hinting at. That they needed to tell someone about A and the constant threats they lived under.

"Telling Anne wouldn't be like telling our parents, she legally has to keep it a secret." Emily pointed out, trying to sell her idea and Aria nodded, "We were so close to telling her yesterday and it felt really good."

"I know we promised Garret we wouldn't show the video to the cops, but I mean, if we want her to believe us…" Aria began to say but Spencer cut in, "A picture's worth a thousand words."

"And you know, she was wearing a gorgeous pair of Khloes." Hanna chimed in, causing Spencer's forehead to line with confusion as she asked, "And this is relevant to this conversation because…?"

"You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes." She reasoned, and Cory couldn't help but laugh.

"I really heard her when she said that we don't have to go through this alone." Emily admitted.

Looking around the room Cory asked, "So do we all agree then? We tell Anne about A?"

Her friends all nodded and Spencer said she'd get them an appointment to talk to Anne the next day, they all left the house with a sense of hope. Even if their therapist wouldn't directly be able to help them, it would feel so good to have someone on their side –someone who actually believed what they were saying.

**~(The next day)~**

"Thank you for seeing us today." Aria said as they all took their seats on the couch and chairs.

Anne smoothed her shirt out as she sat down and asked, "It sounded like there was something you really wanted to tell me."

"And something we want to show you." Cory nodded to Emily who pulled her computer from her bag and started to open it as Hanna clarified that Anne wasn't allowed to tell anyone what was discussed in the room.

Once they were satisfied that the office was truly a safe place to open up, they instructed Emily to show her the videos, but she argued that she should tell her first and then show her.

When no one wanted to be that person who first spoke up, Aria pulled in a deep breath, "We did drift apart after Alison went missing and it's true that her death brought us back together, but I don't know if we'd be as close as we are now if-"

"This talk is premature." Spencer cut in, nodding to the wall. Where her friend's looked over and saw one of Ezra's framed diploma's on the bookcase behind Anne. It was a sign that A knew they were there and wanted to shut them up.

"We're sorry we wasted your time…" Cory apologized as she stood up and grabbed her purse off the coffee table. Emily shut her computer and loaded it back in her bag, as Hanna made her way over to the bookcase to pick up the diploma and sneak it out of the office.

"What just happened here?" Anne wanted to know, they'd seemed so close to finally opening up and now the room was colder than the Antarctic.

"Um, you know… we just need to figure out what we want to say so that we can communicate more effectively…" Spencer stumbled over words and Emily tried to back her up, "So we'll reschedule."

"Wait, you girls called me… remember?" An extremely confused Anne pointed out to them.

Once they were outside Aria sighed, "Well… if she didn't think we were crazy before, she does now."

"Didn't you see it?" Cory asked, turning to face her.

See what?"

"This!" Hanna exclaimed as she pulled the framed diploma from her purse and handed it to Aria who gasped, "This is what A took from Ezra's."

"A knows were coming here…" Spencer pointed out.

"Somehow she's always one step ahead… no matter what." Cory groaned and Hanna nodded, "I'm starting to think that bitch has superpowers."

**~(Later that night)~**

Cory looked up when there was a knock on her bedroom door, "Hey dad." She greeted as he walked in and looked around.

"Cory, we need to talk." He somberly said as he sat down in her computer chair and turned to face where she was sitting on her bed.

"What's wrong?" She asked, her heart starting to race with fear.

"I got a phone call from your therapist and she didn't go into much detail about what happened today, but she did recommend that she see each of you individually instead of together as a group." Austin explained.

"Yeah, I figured that was coming." Cory groaned, rolling her eyes as she started to put her earbuds back in, but he stopped her, "Wait, there's more…"

"She thinks that all of you have an unhealthy co-dependent relationship."

"Meaning…"

"Meaning that, for the time being… you all have to spend some time apart. Don't worry, she said it's not that uncommon for a close group of friends to disconnect from the outside world after a traumatic event."

"Don't worry… dad, you're telling me that I'm not allowed to see my _best_ friends… how can I not worry about that?" She gasped, feeling like her large bedroom was slowly closing in on her.

"We're not saying it's going to be forever, but for right now –we all think this is the best option." Austin said, as he sat down on the bed beside her and tried to lay a comforting hand on her arm, but she jerked away from his touch.

"You don't know anything. These are my best friend's dad, they're the only friends I have!" She stammered out, her voice cracking as she spoke and shook her head back and forth.

"Try to look on the bright side…" He breathed, looking around her room, "You've been spending so much time with them that you're barely staying here a few nights a week, now you'll have some time to paint your new room and maybe pick up a few afterschool hobbies or at the very least focus on your homework because your grades aren't what they used to be."

Scooting back against the wall she wrapped her arms around herself, closing off from her dad and the room.

"Honey…" He started to say but she cut him off, almost on the verge of tears as she said, "I just really need to be alone right now."

Her dad nodded and started to leave her room before he paused in the doorway and offered, "Maybe it's time to think about making some new friends…"

"I don't want new friends, I _need_ _my_ friends." She grumbled, not looking up to him.

It was much later that night that Cory was lying in bed, tossing and turning as she tried unsuccessfully to fall asleep when her phone went off with an SOS text from Spencer, followed by one saying to meet in the old abandoned greenhouse.

Throwing her blankets off, Cory grabbed an over-sized, one shoulder sweater from her dresser and pulled it on over the white shirt and gray plaid shorts she'd been sleeping in. Quickly locating her favorite pair of warm, knitted boots she slid them on and quietly walked out into the hallway, making sure her dad's door was shut.

She jogged to the greenhouse and got there right as Hanna and Aria did, Spencer and Emily were already there and Spencer quickly filled them in on how she'd found her sisters phone and discovered a text she was sure was from Ian.

"We don't know for sure that it's him…" Cory argued, shivering and wishing she'd taken the time to pull on a pair of sweatpants too or something warmer.

"Yeah, it could just be some kook trying to mess with Melissa." Hanna argued, nodding.

"Maybe, but it doesn't seem random; 'It's not safe yet, I can't tell you'," Spencer repeated the message for them again.

"Can't tell you what?" Emily breathed.

"Where he is!" Spencer loudly exclaimed.

"Guys this is crazy, Ian is dead." Aria confidently stated.

"All this time we thought maybe A had taken his body for something… but what if that wasn't the case and he really managed to get away on his own?" Cory whispered to them, all of their faces cast in an eerie green glow from the moonlight pouring in through leaf and dust covered glass ceiling tiles.

"There's only one way to know for sure… send a reply." Hanna suggested in one of those rare moments where she got a brilliant idea.

"How do I know this is you?" Spencer said out loud as she typed the message.

Immediately a new text came through; 'Ask me anything.'

"What's something that only Ian would be able answer?" Hanna spoke quickly.

"hold on… I know." Spencer said, as she continued to type and text, "What are we naming our baby?"

"What is the name?" Emily questioned.

"Taylor."

A few seconds later the phone chimed again with the correct answer. They all gasped in a mutual shared state of shock, somehow Ian had managed to survive the bell tower fall.

"He's… alive…" Cory whispered under her breath.

They all stared at each other when a gust of wind blew and rattled some loose paneling on the side of the abandoned building.

"That was just the wind right…" Emily whispered, stepping closer to the group.

"Yeah… yeah, I think so." Spencer tried to comfort her, but she felt just as scared as the rest of them.

"Either way, we need to go." Aria urged as she nodded for everyone to follow her towards the exit.

"Yeah, I have to get this phone home before Melissa realizes that it's gone." Spencer reminded them.

"So you put it back and then what? We call the cops?" Emily asked, panic in her voice and lacing every syllable.

"Oh, because that always works out so well for us!" Hanna hissed at her, rolling her eyes with attitude.

As the wind picked up outside and tree's rained debris over the greenhouse, Cory spoke up, "Guys, I'm with Aria… we need to go."

Once they were back outside and on the road leading to Spencer's house she suggested they pick the conversation back up in the morning.

"I'm cold, damp and scared. We can talk at school." Hanna offered, but it was clear that idea wasn't going to work."

"We can't," Aria reminded her, "we're supposed to be having, separate time…"

"So what are we supposed to do? Just not talk to each other?" she groaned.

"We just need to play it cool… we can all get prepaid phones to keep in touch if we have to." Cory offered as they neared the DiLaurentis house.

Hearing some loud thudding, they all gasped and ducked out of sight.

"Oh my god… it's Jason." Cory whispered to her friends, as they stayed out of sight from Alison's older brother.

"Did he move back in?" Aria whispered back, as they watched him throw another box of things into the trashcan.

"What is all of that?" Spencer quietly asked

Emily squinted her eyes and said, "That's all the stuff people left on the curb when Ali went missing… those tributes. Maya said her family kept all of those when they moved in because they didn't have the heart to throw anything away."

"Well apparently, Jason's moved on." Spencer shrugged.

"Why would he move back into _that_ house?" Hanna asked as they watching him pick some things up from the ground that had spilled over the top of the trashcan.

Cory remained silent while her friend's talked amongst themselves. Maybe she hadn't imagined Jason coming to visit her in the hospital.

For close to a year she'd played over in her head what she'd say if she saw him again, how she'd act and wondered how she'd feel. Somewhere along the way during her time of living in Ohio and dating a few guys there, she'd convinced herself that she was entirely over Jason. But now she wasn't even sure how to feel as she watched him.

A part of her wanted to go over and say hi to him and another part of her wanted to take off running in the opposite direction –she hadn't even called him when they'd learned Alison was dead. The polite thing would have been to check on him, offer her condolences but she was too afraid to call, scared she wouldn't know what to say or wouldn't be able to find the right words.

"Maybe we should ask him what he's doing back?" She finally was able to locate her words and form a sentence.

"What? Just walked up to him and ask why he's suddenly back in the same house where his dead sister's body was found buried in the back yard?" Hanna asked looking over at her.

"Maybe in a more eloquent way… but yes."

"Cory, I know you have history with him… but come on, he's back in town throwing away Alison's memorial items in the middle of the night. It doesn't get much creepier than that." Emily suggested as she stared at her best friend, Alison's brother had always given her the creeps and nothing about that had changed.

"I mean if you guys don't feel comfortable enough, I could ask." She offered with a small shrug.

"No, no way. You're not going over there." Spencer said as she stood in front of her to block her view of Jason.

"But-"

"She's right, you're the last person that should go over there." Emily agreed.

"come on." She sighed, rolling her eyes and then looked to Aria for support, but her friend shifted on the gravel under her feet and said, "We're not doing anything tonight. It's late and we all need to get home. We'll figure out some way to talk tomorrow."

Emily nodded, "Whatever Jason is doing back, in that house is probably the least of our problems considering Ian's alive."

Cory nodded and Hanna looped her arm with Cory's as she said, "Let's just get home."

Once Spencer went to her house and the others split up to go their separate ways, Cory found herself turning around and walking back towards the DiLaurentis house; without a clue of what she'd say once she got there.

A cold night wind blew and pierced right through the sweater she'd pulled on. She'd considered that this was probably wasn't the best idea considering it was just after midnight and the last thing she should be doing was walking around by herself outside.

Just as she reached the house she saw Jason throwing another box of stuff into the trashcan and she realized she wasn't sure she was ready to talk to him after all. But before she could turn and dart out of eyesight, something rolled from the overflowing trashcan down the driveway until it stopped once it collided with her knit boots.

Swallowing hard, Cory looked up to see Jason watching her with an unreadable expression on his face. Ready to face him again or not, she'd been spotted and there was no sneaking away or ducking out of sight now.

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><p><strong>AN- Jason's finally back! I guess it was a little evil to just there it there, huh? ^_-**

**I really hope you guys all liked the chapter and are still enjoying the story. This is quickly becoming my favorite one to write for now.**

**Don't forget the link to my Tumblr is up on my profile and since I've just learned my way around Photoshop, I'll be posting gif edits and other things for this story and my others!**

**I owe a huge thank you to xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Lucy Greenhill, xxxRena, Momsen-xxxx, RHatch89, Liam1094, Heartless-Princess, Bell loves cookies, love2beh8ers, Tina, Nicole, Lucie25, Shannon2015, SmellYouScentForMiles, and the 2 guests who all reviewed the last chapter! Honestly, I cannot even begin to say how much your support means. Thank you!**


	8. Whispers in the Dark

**Whispers in the Dark**

**- Chapter Eight – Whispers in the Dark  
><strong>

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><p>"<em>Despite the lies that you're making, your love is mine for the taking.<em>

_My love is just waiting to turn your tears to roses._

_I will be the one that's gonna hold you, I will be the one that you run to._

_My love is a burning, consuming fire._

_No, you'll never be alone._

_When darkness comes; I'll light the night with stars._

_Hear my whispers in the dark._

_No, you'll never be alone._

_When darkness comes; you know I'm never far,_

_Hear my whispers in the dark…"_

_Artist: Skillet – Song: Whispers in the Dark _

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><p>Cory diverted her eye's from Jason's stare as she looked down to see what had rolled to her feet, it was a white and yellow swirled 2 wick candle contained in a delicate pink glass –which by some miracle was only slightly chipped from it's journey out of the trashcan and down the driveway.<p>

Kneeling down she picked it up and looked up at Jason as she swallowed hard and managed to breathe, "Hey…"

"Hey." He greeted back, walking closer to her and frowning at the small cuts still visible on her face from the accident she'd been in.

They stood in silence, neither of them entirely sure what to say to the other. Offering a small smile he asked, "When did you start taking midnight walks in your pajamas?"

Her lips curved up in a small smile and she looked around, as she shrugged, "I don't know, it's never too late to start a new tradition, right?"

Trying to ignore her heart racing almost painfully hard against her still sore ribcage she looked to the trashcan behind him and asked, "Why are you throwing all of this away?"

"Oh, uh, I'm just trying to fix the house up right now… I found these boxes in the basement." He gave a small shrug as he spoke, but Cory shook her head and called him on his lie, "You know what all of this stuff is… it's things that people left here when Ali went missing."

Nodding he glanced over to some stuffed animals that were on the ground next to the trashcans and explained, "I just don't really see a point in keeping this junk around… it's not going to bring her back."

"True, I guess…" She breathed, wanting to ask him so many questions. Starting with wondering if he'd really been at the hospital to see her and what he was doing back, why he'd want to live in that house of all places.

Leaning down he picked up a few other things that had rolled down the driveway and reached out to take the candle from her but she stepped back and protectively held onto it as she admitted, "I'm the one who left this here…"

"Oh." He realized feeling bad when he saw the pained look on her face, "I didn't know…"

"My dad had some medical conferences in Pittsburg, it was this entire weekend event so my whole family went. I brought Ali with me and we found this small craft store not too far from the hotel." Cory remembered with a smile as she continued, "We picked the scents, wax colors, the glass holders… we made matching candles."

"That's the one you made?" He quietly asked, his eyes never leaving her face as she spoke.

"No, actually this is the one Ali made. We tried to swirl the yellow and white wax but hers didn't look as good as mine… so she made me trade her." Cory laughed and Jason smiled as he nodded, "Sounds like something she'd do."

"I guess since she's the one who made this one… I probably should have hung onto it." Her voice was a quiet whisper, so soft that he had to lean in to hear her.

"Why didn't you?"

Shrugging she looked back up at him, her eyes locking with his and for a moment she couldn't breathe. Clearing her throat she admitted, "It's stupid… but I guess, I thought if I left this here that when she came home she'd see it and know that I'd never forget about her, that no matter what was so bad she had to leave Rosewood over –maybe if she saw this candle she'd know that she still had me and she could come home."

Cory looked down, feeling tears stinging her eyes as she looked down to a deep crack running along the side of the pink glass jar she hadn't seen before she whispered, "Like I said… it's stupid." As she turned it in her hand the glass cut her finger and she winced as blood started to bead to the surface.

"No." He argued, "That's not stupid."

"Yeah, looking back it kind of is… especially knowing what we know now." She argued, shaking her head and using her non injured hand to wipe the tear that had slid down her cheek.

He opened his mouth to say something but she pulled in a deep, painful breathe and looked around wondering what she was even doing there. What good could possibly come from this? Alison was dead, really gone and nothing could change that.

"It's late… I should get home." She stammered out, taking a few steps backwards and nearly tripping over her own feet.

He quickly stepped forward in case she did lose her balance.

"I could drive you-" He started to offer but she shook her head back and forth, "No, it's okay. I want to walk."

He looked around, not liking the idea of her walking home alone in the middle of the night in the same town where his sister had been killed, but with the way she kept backing up away from him –he couldn't tell if she was afraid of him.

"I could walk with you." He offered, with a small smile.

"No." She said, shaking her head back and forth, "You're really busy and I… I shouldn't have come here anyways." She stammered out her excuse as she handed him the candle to throw away and nervously called out, "Goodnight."

He looked down to the candle and saw blood smeared on the glass, "Cory, are you hurt?"

"Uh, the glass cut me… but I'm fine." She quickly answered, before politely saying, "Have a goodnight, Jason."

A little confused by her reaction he slowly nodded and called after her, "Uh, yeah… you too."

By the time she'd reached her own street she was practically in a full blown sprint, she'd thought she'd be ready to see and talk to him again because she'd convinced herself that she was over him but now it was becoming clearer and clearer that she still felt the same when it came to him.

But everything seemed to be happening all at once, she was still recovering both mentally and physically from the car wreck, Ian Thomas was still alive, she was banned from seeing or speaking to her best friends and as much as she liked seeing Jason again –seeing him also brought up painful memories that she'd tried to keep buried.

She kicked her boots off inside of her bedroom door and pulled the sweater off, letting it fall to the floor as she walked into her bathroom and washed her injured hand. Winching and letting out a pained cry when she had to use the tweezers to pull a small piece of pink glass from the cut but at least the bleeding had slowed a lot.

Putting a Band-Aid on she left all of her lights on as she crawled into her bed and pulled the blankets over her head, hoping she could get some sleep before school the next day.

**~(The next day)~**

The group of friends made their way through the lunch line, walking as slow as possible so they could talk.

"I can't believe the videos are all gone… that was our only evidence against Ian." Aria sighed, as Emily filled them in on how the entire hard drive had been whipped clean on her computer.

"Well, we don't have it anymore." Emily said, feeling like she'd let everyone down even though it wasn't her fault.

"We should have made like a hundred copies." Cory said as she grabbed a cup of fresh fruit and sat it on her tray.

"Has Ian sent anymore messages?" Hanna whispered as she cut between Spencer and Emily in the line.

Spencer shook her head, "I don't know. She's not leaving her phone sitting around."

They scooted down a little farther and Hanna eyed the selection of cookies.

"What about Jason, what is he doing back… and in that house?" Emily whisper-yelled at them.

"Maybe he's just looking for closure or something." Spencer guessed, but Hanna quickly said she wasn't allowed to use that word since their therapist who split them apart used it all of the time.

"Guys… I have a confession." Cory whispered looking at her friends as they stood in front of the drink cooler she admitted, "I went back to Ali's house last night… once we all separated."

"Damn it, I knew I should have walked you all the way home." Hanna groaned shaking her head.

"Did you talk to Jason?" Aria questioned.

"Yeah, not for very long… he said he was clearing those boxes of stuff out because keeping it around wasn't going to bring her back." Cory explained, then glanced around before she added, "Maybe he feels like since he knows what happened to Ali now, he can finally come home?"

"Even you have to admit it's creepy that he's back." Emily said, her voice almost sounded like she was scolding her friend.

Cory shrugged.

"I really don't like you going over there by yourself." Spencer admitted to her, and Hanna had to add in her two cents as she nodded and said, "You've got a past with him so you're not exactly the best judge of character."

"Thanks Han." She sarcastically replied.

"You know what I mean… I'm just saying, you end up getting too trusting of him –go into that house and then we may never see you again." She continued.

"I thought we were all in agreeance that Ian killed Ali." Aria spoke up.

"We are, but that doesn't mean Jason's not dangerous… or creepy." Emily pointed out and Hanna nodded.

Cory grabbed a bottle of apple juice from the cooler and walked over to pay for her lunch without another word to them.

Once they'd all filed out into the cafeteria, Aria sat down at their usual table and Hanna started to sit with her until she protested, "Han!"

"What?"

"I don't think we should sit together." Spencer quietly said as people started to stare at them all just standing in the center of the cafeteria.

"We always sit together." Cory argued, finding something to finally agree with Hanna about that day.

"We have to make it look like we're going along with this." Spencer reminded her as Emily nodded and walked over to a table with some of the swim team.

"Looking like were doing it is the same thing as doing it. It means that we're wrong and we're not wrong, we're right." The blonde continued to plead her case.

"Are we? We don't even really know what happened." Aria pointed out.

"Then that's more reason to sit together." Cory said, knowing if she didn't sit with them, she'd have no one to sit with.

"Sorry." Aria apologized and Hanna sighed storming off as she dropped her lunch tray on the end fo a table and stormed out of the cafeteria.

Cory found an empty table in the corner and sat down, feeling like she wasn't sure if she could actually eat her lunch or not now.

Her phone went off and she opened the text to reveal a new message from a blocked number;

'_Look at you, all alone in a crowd. I win! Xoxo –A'_

She lifted her head to see if she was the only one who got the message, but when she saw her other friends staring down their phones she knew A had sent it to everyone.

**~(Later that night)~**

"Spence, what are you doing here?" Cory whispered as she walked up onto the porch of the DiLaurentis house right as her friend had rung the doorbell.

Spinning around she raised her eyebrows as she asked, "What are _you_ doing here?"

"I asked you first."

"Look, he came back for a reason and we need to figure out what that reason is… Jason and Ian used to be friends." She whispered at her, praying he wouldn't open the door yet.

"So you think he's hiding Ian in there?" Cory gasped.

"I don't know, maybe. But we need to know what we're up against." Spencer reasoned and Cory nodded before she looked down to the plate of pastries in her friend's hand and asked, "Wait… what are those?"

"I picked them up from a bakery earlier… I'm trying to act normal and blend, like I'm welcoming him back to the neighborhood." She shrugged, but Cory's jaw dropped as she whined, "I didn't bring anything to welcome him back with!"

"Cor, you used to sleep with him… I don't think you need to bring baked goods to his door step as an excuse to be here." Spencer pointed out causing her friend to roll her eyes as she argued, "Can we just say those are from us both?"

"What? No, this was my idea. I even stopped by home to move them from the box to a dish, so they'd look homemade." Spencer defended, until Cory gave her a look that she couldn't so no to and she sighed, "Fine_, _but that's if he even answers the door."

Reaching forward she rang the doorbell again and then her attention was diverted back to where there was a tarp over a small hole dug in the front yard, a little dog was barking and scratching at the tarp.

"What do you think is under that?" Cory asked.

"Hey, what you doing, buddy?" Spencer asked the dog in a voice that sounded like she was trying to entertain a small child.

The door flung open and Jason stormed out of the house, as he hurled a newspaper towards the dog and screamed, "Hey, get out of here!"

The paper landed next to the dog on the ground and startled it, as it whined and took off running.

The girls stared at each other wide eyed; thinking maybe this was a terrible idea.

Sighing and watching as the dog ran off he waited till it was out of sight before he turned to them and said, "Hey Cory."

"Hey…" she greeted, wondering why he was so mad at the dog and what the dog was so interested in under that tarp.

"Hi." Spencer said, interrupting as the pair stood and stared at each other in silence.

"Hello, Spencer." He greeted, pulling his eyes away from her friend.

Deciding to talk while she had his attention she said, "Sorry for just showing up like this… but I saw you back-"

"We." Cory cut in with her correction.

"Yeah, _We_ saw you were back and thought we'd try to beat the welcome wagon." She continued with a dry laugh, knowing very well no one was lining up to welcome Jason back to Rosewood.

"Uh, thanks… that's great." He replied as he took the plate and stepped into the still open door to set the plate down and both girls followed like they were going to walk in after him, but he quickly blocked their view and stepped back out, causing them to back up as he pretty much slammed the door behind him.

"Are you parent's coming back?" Spencer questioned.

"No… it's just gonna be me for the time being." He answered, looking between them and wondering what they were really doing there.

The teenage girls stood in silence, Spencer awkwardly crossed her arms over her chest while Cory seemed to be looking around at anything except him. "I heard what happened… you guys okay?"

"Working on it." Spencer replied and Cory nodded as she asked, "So you know about everything that happened?"

"Just what I get from the news. The cops in this town don't really talk to me, I'm the bother of a murder victim… but mostly they see me as a big pain in the ass. I ask too many questions." He continued, feeling the need to take up the silence as Spencer and Cory just stood there.

"Uh, is that why you're back? Trying to get closure?" Cory asked, as she finally faced him again and nervously played with the sleeve on her jacket.

"Is there really such a thing as closure?" He questioned, his gaze lingering on her until Spencer said, "I think there can be… now that we know what happened."

"Okay… the bell tower he said."

"What about it?" Spencer asked.

"I heard that you told police Ian confessed to killing Ali, is that what happened?" He asked, stepping between them and down the porch stairs, leaving them in the porch light and him in the darkness when they turned to face him.

"No one really believes us." Cory said, her voice a little hoarse as she spoke.

"Yeah, that's what's being referred to as my version of events…" Spencer nodded, "The police think Ian ran away, but not because of your sister."

"Did he confess?" Jason asked, looking around the yard as he put his back to them.

"Yeah, I think he did."

"You _think_ he did?"

"Well, he wanted everyone to believe that I killed her." Spencer explained.

Turning back around he nodded, "And how did you do it? According to Ian?

Spencer looked over to Cory as she took a deep breath and then said, "I pushed her, she fell and it was an accident."

He looked at her and she shook her head, "Jason, I'm sorry… I know that you and Ian were once close-"

"Did he say he killed her?" Jason gruffly asked them.

"That's what he meant." Cory spoke up, hoping Jason would at least believe her.

"That's what he meant? That's what you think…" He said, his voice growing louder as he stepped up the stairs to the porch and so close to her that she almost felt threatened, as he gruffly asked, "Did Ian say; "I killed Alison?""

"Not in those words." Cory shrugged.

"Not those words?" Jason asked, stepping closer to her and for the first time since they'd known each other, making her feel threatened as she took a step back and admitted, "Not in those exact words, no."

Spencer grabbed her arm and pulled her over to her and Jason took an apologetic step back, not trying to scare or intimidate either of them –especially Cory. But he needed to know if Ian was the one who killed his sister.

No one else knew, but the night Alison had gone missing he couldn't remember a thing. He'd literally blacked out, and when he woke up he had a note in his pocket saying that someone saw what he did, he'd spent all this time wondering if he'd accidently killed his sister. If he knew without a doubt that Ian killed her, then it would be the biggest relief he'd ever felt.

"It's, uh… it's getting late and I've got a lot to do inside." He said, giving Cory another apologetic look before stepping back up to the door.

Even though she no longer felt the least bit safe there with Jason, Spencer knew they needed to see inside of that house and figure out if he was harboring a badly wounded Ian. So she shakily asked, "Can we help?"

"You already have." He said, before looking at Cory and saying, "Good night."

She slowly nodded, still not sure how to feel or why he'd gotten up in her face like he was trying to scare an answer out of her. Either way, he'd succeeded. She wanted away from the house and for the moment at least, away from Jason.

Once he was inside with the door shut and locked behind him, Spencer asked, "Cor, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She quickly answered, glancing back at the door and whispering her to friend, "What was that about?"

"I don't know." She admitted.

The porch lights clicked off and left them standing in darkness and spencer said, "We should go."

Cory nodded and they both walked down the porch stairs and out onto the road as Spencer said, "He's hiding something… it just doesn't feel right."

"You really think he could be hiding Ian in that house?" She whispered, feeling like they were being watched.

"I don't know what to think."

"Me either."

Spencer looked around, "I know we're not supposed to be seen together, but you want to come over for a little bit…"

"No, it's okay. The last thing I want to do is give your parents more reason be on your case." She said with a friendly smile as she reminded her, "Emily's mom might be keeping an eye on her phone, but my dad isn't… so you can call me if you need to."

"Same here, my phone's on me all the time… SOS if you need me." Spencer said as she stepped forward and hugged her friend, before starting the short walk to her house.

Cory looked back at the house one last time before starting her own walk home, feeling like she was carrying the weight of the world with her.

All of her friends were going through a hard time, Hanna was having to deal with Caleb being back in town and the fact that her dad was deciding to stick around for a while. The next day was Mr. Fitz's last day teaching at Rosewood and Aria had found out that Jackie Molina worked at Hollis. Emily's mom was still wanting to move them away to Texas and they were all reeling from the idea that Ian might still be alive.

Worst of all, this was a time that they desperately needed each other –and they weren't even allowed to sit at the same table during lunch. Everything was a disaster and it felt like the walls were crumbling and collapsing in on all of five of them, leaving them each out in the cold to whether the storm alone.

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><p><strong>AN- Thank you so much for reading guys! JASON'S BACK! I was so excited to get this chapter posted now that Jason is back in town and there's room for plenty of Cory/Jason interaction. ^_^ What did you all think of the chapter?**

**I owe a special shout out and many thank yous to xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Nirvana14, RHatch89, xxxRena, Momsen-xxxx, love2bh8ers, SmellYourScentForMiles, Lucy Greenhill, Heartless-Princess33, Joeyackles2, Shannon2015, Guest, jk522, guiltypleasurexo, and to BloomingBlueMoon85 all for reviewing chapter 7! I know I left 7 on a cliffhanger but I sorta made up for it by updating quickly, right? Lol No, but seriously thank you all so much!**


	9. Comfortable Liar

**Whispers in the Dark**

**- Chapter Nine –Comfortable Liar  
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><p>Cory thanked the barista at the counter and took her coffee over to a small table near the large set of windows.<p>

She sat down and thought to herself how strange it felt to be sitting at The Brew by herself; she was almost always there with at least one of her friends. Spending separate time from them was harder than she'd thought it would be; ever since she'd moved back they'd all been inseparable and now it was treated like high treason if they got caught on the phone together.

Looking down to her phone she started to debate whether she should text someone and see if they had time for a coffee before school, as far as she knew their therapist wasn't monitoring cameras at local teen hangouts –but then again you can't ever be sure.

"Morning."

Looking up from her phone, a confused look spread over her face as she said, "Good morning, Jason…"

He looked around for a moment before pointing to the empty chair across from her. Taking a drink of her coffee she shrugged and nodded, letting him know the seat wasn't taken but she also wasn't sure why he even wanted to sit with her after the way he'd treated her and Spencer the night before.

She watched him from over the lid on her coffee cup, waiting for him to say something –preferably an apology for trying to scare an answer out of her.

"I was kind of surprised to find you here alone. I remember when you guys were completely inseparable." He finally said, trying to make conversation as he looked down to his own coffee.

"Yeah, it's not exactly by choice… our parents seem to think some time apart will do us all some good." She admitted, rolling her eyes hardly able to believe her dad had gone along with the plan when he knew how much her friends meant to her.

Sighing and knowing what he needed to say, he cleared his throat as he started to say, "Listen… about last night-"

"Which part of last night? The part where you threw a rolled up newspaper at a poor little dog or the part where you were moments away from trying to shake me down for an answer to your questions?" She cut in, with raised eyebrows letting him know she wasn't going to make this apology easy on him.

He looked down and hid the small smile he got at realizing how much he'd missed being around her. It wasn't until after he'd gotten clean and sober that he'd really started to realize how much he cared about her and missed her, but by then it was too late. Her family had already moved away from Rosewood and he'd started looking at Ivy League schools.

"All of it, but for the record that little dog has been hassling me all week." He joked and try as she might to keep a straight face, she smiled.

"I know it looked bad." He finally admitted, "I had no right to act like that towards you, it's just after so long of wondering what happened to my sister… then finding out she's dead, I need answers. And when I heard you guys told the police Ian confessed, I thought that's what I finally had. But a _maybe_, isn't really good enough."

"So you think we're lying about what happened?" She questioned, trying not to look hurt.

"I didn't say that." He quickly cut in, "I don't think you're lying, I'm just not entirely convinced that it was Ian who killed Ali."

"Well, I am." She asserted, swallowing hard as their eyes met and she admitted, "I was in the church that night with Spencer, and Ian pretty much tossed me around like a rag doll. And that wasn't the first night he'd made a comment about what happened to Alison that didn't sit right."

He nodded, seeing how much she believed her own story. It was almost enough to make him believe it too but not quite.

"I'm sorry… I know you guys were friends." She breathed, looking down to the table.

"That was a long time ago… and honestly looking back, I don't think I really had friends –just people who used me to get wasted." He admitted, pulling in a deep breath as he continued, "Not that I can even be sure of that; most of what I remember I wish I could forget."

Cory nodded, she knew that feeling. Maybe not to the level he did considering he'd spent years in an alcohol and drug induced haze, but she could still relate from just the time she'd been living that way.

"But look at you now… clean and sober." She smiled at him as she spoke, proud that he'd been able to clean his act up.

"Yeah, with a blurry past of regrets." He quietly said before he looked at her and added, "There's things in my past that I'm not proud of… quite a bit of that has to do with you…"

He had her full attention as she raised her head and her gaze landed on him, her hazel eyes full of worry; wondering what he was getting at, was he trying to say he wished nothing had ever happened between them? She swallowed hard and rubbed her sweaty palms on the sides of her dress, she'd just been starting to realize how much she missed him and wasn't sure she could handle it if he made some comment like that to her.

"What do you mean?" she pushed, needing him to finish what he was saying –even the outcome scared her. Maybe the not knowing really was worse.

"I don't even think you'd had a drink before you started talking to me." He pointed out thinking back and feeling guilty about how bad her life seemed to spiral out of control once they'd gotten involved. "I've always been the guy who manages to break everything I touch… you deserved a lot better than that –better than me."

"Jason…" she sighed, shaking her head back and forth, "Don't do that… don't blame yourself. I don't blame you." She admitted, cupping her hands around the disposable coffee cup and appreciating the warmth on her palms.

"You sure about that?" He questioned, drinking down the last of his coffee.

His eyes met hers and she felt the familiar flutter in her stomach that always seemed to happen when he was around her.

Nodding she raised her eyebrows in question, wondering why he had such a hard time believing that.

Running his tongue over his bottom lip, he debated whether he should really bring up what was on his mind. Finally, he sighed and pointed out, "It's not a big deal… but after you moved –I did try to call you. When you never picked up or even texted… I just-"

"That wasn't my choice." She cut in, "My parents took my phone before…" Her eyes widened slightly and she looked down to the table, she'd almost slipped up and admitted that she'd been to rehab.

It was frustrating, knowing that he wouldn't judge her and would even be able to relate and she couldn't even say anything to him about it. Swallowing hard she wondered at exactly what point in her life lying and hiding things around the clock became her new normal.

"Before what?" He asked, seeing the sudden change in her behavior.

"Nothing." She lied, as she reached over and pulled her school bag and purse up from where she'd left it on the floor and apologetically said, "I have to get to school."

Feeling like he already knew the answer, but decided it was worth a shot to ask anyways he offered, "I could take you, I'm headed that way anyways." It was a lie, he had no reason to be going in the direction of the school, but if it meant stealing a few extra minutes with her –it would be worth it.

"No, that's okay. Thanks though." She stammered out as she turned to leave, but only made it a few steps away from the table before she paused and closed her eyes. Looking over her shoulder she admitted, "If I could have called you back… I would have."

Before he got the chance to respond to her, she quickly left The Brew and started her walk towards the school.

**~()~**

"Sorry I'm late." Cory apologized as she walked into the girls bathroom at school where they were supposed to meet before their classes.

"Cor, we all left early so we'd get a chance to talk." Emily reminded her as she finished washing her hands and threw the paper towel into the trashcan.

"Not that you missed much, just a lot of hiding in the stalls. We've got to find a better place to meet… maybe somewhere with a fan." Aria explained with a wrinkled noise as Hanna pulled a bottle of perfume from her purse and spritzed the air around the group of friends.

"Good luck, we're going to have to dig a tunnel under the school or something." Emily sighed as she looked around, her stomach was always in knots now that she was possibly just mere weeks away from leaving Rosewood. Her dad got stationed for a year in Texas and her mom wanted them all to move there with him.

"Not with those hands…" Hanna said to her with wide eyes, "you need some serious moisturizer." She continued, before reaching into her bag and retrieving a bottle of lotion as she explained, "This cost more than my purse."

As Emily opened it to put some on her dry hands, Cory saw the label and beamed, "Can I use it too, I love that stuff."

"Sure." Hanna smiled.

Spencer tried to assure Emily that the letter she got from the scout wasn't that bad, but she knew it wasn't good enough for her parents. In order for them to even consider letting her stay in Rosewood to finish school would be if they had a commitment from the university. But the best Danby could do was write a letter showing they were interested in her and that she _might_ fit the criteria to be offered a scholarship.

"It means a lot that they even took the time to write the letter though, doesn't it?" Spencer questioned.

"Not good enough, my mom needs more than a maybe letter. She needs something that says, 'We want her, don't take her out of Rosewood. Don't move her to Texas' this won't cut it." She sadly said as she thought of how her mom had already packed up the kitchen.

"Em there are other colleges." Aria tried to be hopeful and Spencer backed her up, "And other scouts will want you."

"When? My mom's already packed up the entire kitchen and keeps telling me how much I'm going to love the rodeo."

Shrugging Cory walked over to the mirror as she fixed her lip gloss and nonchalantly said, "So give her a letter that is more than a maybe."

"How?" She scoffed, "Unless you've got some strings to pull at Danby… I'm stuck."

"No, I don't have strings… but I do have a computer and you've got the envelope he handed you the letter in the college crest." Cory said, as she watched her friends in the mirror behind her own reflection.

"You're saying she should write a fake letter? Promising a fake scholarship?" Aria asked, her brown eyes wide as she stepped up beside her.

Nodding Cory scrunched her wavy hair and nodded, "Yeah, I mean come on… Emily's the best swimmer on the team, of course they're really going to offer her a scholarship."

"I think it's a great idea, I could help your write it." Hanna smiled, thinking this might be their best plan to keep Emily around.

"No…" She shook her head, "I can't just lie to my parents about something this big, I can't."

"Then don't think of it as lying; you're just …pre-telling the truth." Cory argued, turning to face her as she adjusted her purse and school bag straps on her shoulder.

"Pre-telling the truth?" Spencer asked with raised eyebrows, knowing that was something Alison used a lot when it came to lying. She'd excuse it by theorizing that it was going to happen anyways.

"You sound like you spent way too much around Ali." Hanna agreed, but also had to admit she was fully on board with the plan. If it was her mom trying to move her away, she'd do what she had to –to stay.

They heard talking right outside of the door when the halls started to fill with students, they were down to just about 5 minutes before the bell was going to ring. Time to go back to pretending they didn't speak to one another.

"Let's do this later." Aria reasoned, as she also used some of the moisturizer that Hanna had.

"Um, what about after school?" The blonde questioned as he put the bottle back in her purse.

But her hopes were dashed when everyone had an excuse; Spencer had field hockey, Emily had swim practice, Aria was starting her extension course at Hollis and Cory's dad was picking her up from school for an early dinner.

"Great, everyone has a life except for me." Hanna complained, her voice had a slight whine to it as she slouched her stance in defeat.

"I hardly call getting lunch with my dad, having a life. Besides… weren't you going to the mall with Mona?" Cory asked her.

"Stealing moisturizer isn't a hobby."

Spencer turned to her with wide eyes as she gasped, "You stole that?"

"No." She rolled her eyes, "It was a sample."

"Uh, Hanna… newsflash the bottles with the little 'tester' stickers, those aren't free samples." Aria filled her in, but the conversation was cut short when the door opened and one of their teachers walked in.

Silently, they all went their separate ways as Hanna stepped up to the sink to wash her hands, Spencer and Emily walked into empty stalls and Cory and Aria spilled out into the hallway, immediately getting separated by the busy morning bustle of students.

**~(That night)~**

"Hello?" Cory answered her phone, after lying about who was calling her and excusing herself from the living room.

"Where have you been? I've been calling for hours." Spencer scolded, letting out a painfully loud sigh into the phone and making her friend cringe.

"What's going on?"

She went into her room and shut the door as she listened to Spencer frantically explain that on her walk home from school she'd stopped by Jason's to see if Toby was there. He wasn't, but she saw a male figure moving around in the upstairs which she thought was Jason, until he'd walked up behind her to ask what she was doing there.

"I'm telling you… Melissa keeps leaving on foot to see someone and the only reason Jason would have to lie about living there alone would be if he was harboring Ian." Spencer reasoned, as she said when she looked back to the house the curtains were closed when they'd been open only moments before.

"Maybe the wind blew the curtains over the window?" Cory suggested, plopping down in her computer chair and kicking off from the floor to make the chair spin.

Spencer looked around her own bedroom before sighing heavily and exclaiming, "The curtains were closed, Cory!"

"Okay, I'm just saying… I really don't think Jason would be hiding Ian. Not after everything we told him…"

"Are you not listening to me? Someone else is in that house… I saw them and it has to be Ian. Which means there's a murderer living next door, my parents are in New York and all I have to defend myself with a hockey stick!"

Cory rubbed her eyes as her friend's voice grew louder with emotion until she was practically yelling into the phone.

"I'd ask Toby to check it out since he's working there, but if I tell him anything he's going to barge in there trying to act like a hero and end up getting hurt." Spencer admitted; now pacing the floor of her bedroom.

"So what are you saying?" Cory questioned.

"We need to figure out what Jason's hiding… but for tonight I'd settle with you coming to stay over."

"You know I can't do that… my dad would want to know where I was going this late and it's not like I have other friends I can lie and say I'm staying with them." She apologized.

"Then I'll come over there… your dad loves me." She pleaded.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen. He thinks this separate time crap is a good idea… he even told me this might be a good time for me to branch out and make some new friends." She admitted.

Spencer walked over to her window and looked at the DiLaurentis house before the words sunk in and she paused, "New friends? What's wrong with the friend's you've got?"

"I don't know." Cory shrugged, "I gotta go… just make sure you've got the doors locked."

"What? No… we have to do something. I can't just stay here." She whined, "I saw Jason walking around Ali's old bedroom a few minutes ago… it's so creepy!"

"Oh my god, Spence… then stop spying on him." Cory sighed shaking her head before saying she had to go again.

It was barely 5 minutes later when her phone went off with an incoming text from Spencer:

'_Jason's putting newspaper over the windows, something really bad has to be happening over there… HELP.'_

Standing from her computer chair, she grabbed some clothes out of her closet and tucked them into a bag before she went downstairs. Spending 10 minutes explaining to her dad that she had to stay the night with Spencer because she was helping her get caught up in her classes and there was no other way they could get their studying done.

Stepping outside in the cool night air, she pulled in a deep breath before texting her friend and letting her know she'd be there in a few minutes. It wasn't that long of a walk to Spencer's house from the new house they'd moved into.

For such a quiet night, it was a very noisy walk –inside her head at least.

She didn't believe for a second that Jason had Ian in the house, but several other things didn't make sense either. Like why was he going to such great extent to keep prying eyes out, what could he possibly have to hide?

Just as she was one street over from Spencer's she grew aware of the sound of an approaching car, looking behind her she saw a dark car with dark tinted windows slowly driving behind her –with their headlights off.

Her heart started to race in her chest and she could feel the muscles in her legs starting to tighten, ready to aide her in a fight or flight situation.

Looking back in front of her she tried to ignore the car, hoping whoever it was would just go away and leave her alone. But as the car picked up just a bit of speed and stayed right with her, she knew that wasn't going to happen.

Even though it was a cool night, her clothes were starting to cling to her body from breaking out into a cold sweat.

The car was staying just behind her, and she was moving at a normal pace but all of a sudden it felt like everything was moving too fast to process and before she even fully understood what was happening she was clutching onto her bag strap and racing for her friend's house.

The car sped up with her and she had a horrible, sickening, sinking feeling in her stomach. A familiar feeling that came with being watched and followed and now she wasn't even sure where to go, if it was someone dangerous who was following her she didn't wanted to lead them right to her friend's door but she had nowhere else to go.

Hearing the roar of the accelerator behind her, she fearfully jumped to the side in case it was someone trying to run her over like A had done to Hanna, but luckily the car sped off not turning their lights on until they were turning onto the next street.

"Cory, oh my god… are you okay?" Spencer asked as she ushered her friend inside of the warm, large house.

Once she was sat down on the couch, and Spencer put some water into the kettle for them to have some tea she explained about the car following her and the pair sat in silence, neither of them sure what was happening.

Just as the kettle started to whistle, Spencer jumped up and Cory nearly jumped out of her skin when the door opened behind her.

"Sorry." Melissa said with a laugh, "I didn't mean to startle you."

"Oh… uh, Cory just came over for some help with her homework." Spencer quickly lied, knowing her sister had also been told about their group of friends separating.

"Don't worry, I can keep a secret." She said before turning to Cory and saying, "I'm not so sure about the neighbors though… maybe you shouldn't have parked out front."

"What? I walked here…"

Melissa's forehead lined with confusion as she said, "Then who's car is right out front?"

Spencer and Cory both bolted out for the nearest door and around to the front of the house, but there was no car there.

Hearing footsteps behind them, they looked back to see Melisa approaching them as she asked, "Who was it?"

"Don't know… we didn't see a car." Spencer shrugged.

Turning to the older Hasting's sibling, Cory nervously asked, "Why'd you think it was my car?"

"Well, on my way to a doctor's appointment I passed your new house a few days ago and saw the same car parked outside."

The color drained from the teenagers face as she wondered who it was. The first thought that came to mind was A, but that wasn't really A's style. She hadn't gotten any texts from them, taunting that they were watching her.

The closest to that was someone kept calling the landline at her house; when her dad answered they'd hang up, but when Cory answered whoever was on the other end of the conversation just stayed quiet and breathed until she hung up.

Picking up on Cory's uneasiness, Melissa pulled her sweater around herself and said, "Let's go back inside… you can help me look for my wedding ring."

She nodded and followed Spencer inside as she tried to convince her older sister to sleep in the house instead of the barn that night; a suggestion that Cory whole heartedly backed. Neither of the teenagers really wanted Melissa's company but it was better than trying to sleep in the house by themselves.

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><p><strong>AN- I hope you guys all enjoyed the chapter. ^_^**


	10. Wild World

**Whispers in the Dark**

**- Chapter Ten – Wild World  
><strong>

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><p>It was a couple days later that Spencer and Cory were walking as quietly as possible through all of the trees that stood between the Hastings and DiLaurentis properties.<p>

"This is an awful plan." Spencer sighed.

"Yeah, I don't disagree but right now it's the only plan we've got." Cory countered.

They'd came up with an idea of how to see if Jason was really hiding Ian in his house or not; Spencer was going to talk to Toby and Jason, keep the latter distracted while Cory slipped into the house and looked around to see what he was hiding.

As they neared the property they stopped between to trees and looked to see Jason picking up bags of soil from the ground and moving them into a wheelbarrow.

Her breath caught in her throat as she continued to watch Jason with his damp, sweaty shirt clinging to his skin, perfectly showcasing his muscular upper body. Clearing her throat and having a slight struggle to find the right words Cory said, "Or we could just ditch the plan and stay here… keep an eye on him."

"Ew, no." Spencer groaned nudging her as she sighed, "I'm not going to stand here and watch you spy on some creepy guy who you never should have been involved with anyways; especially when that creepy guy is hiding Ian, who tried to kill me by the way, in his creepy old house."

"Going for a record on how many times you can fit the word creepy into a sentence, Spence?"

But her friend didn't respond as she was watching her boyfriend, Toby –who was busy digging holes for the tall fence posts.

"We need to stay focused today… but if I can't get Toby to quit his job here, maybe we should keep coming back. You know, to make sure nothing happens to him… I don't trust Jason." Spencer airily breathed out as she never took her eyes off of Toby.

Cory laughed and shook her head, she was about to remind her friend of the plan until, she heard Jason talking as he asked, "Wanna take a break?"

"Nah." Toby replied, barely looking up from the hole he was digging.

"Dude, you've been working non-stop, it doesn't have to be built in a day. You got another job to go to or what?" Jason questioned, pulling the work glove's he'd had on off and starting to walk towards the teenager.

Spencer and Cory ducked down some, enough where they could see but were shielded from view.

"I'm uh, I'm guessing people around here are still giving you a hard time, huh? Look, just for the record Toby, I never believed you were guilty of anything." Jason admitted, as the teenager stopped digging and looked at him, he continued "Except maybe being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I've been there."

Cory didn't even realize she was hopelessly smiling until Spencer nudged her and demanded in a stern whisper, "Stop that!"

"Spence, did it ever occur to you that Jason isn't that bad of a guy?" She asked, thinking that was the Jason she'd known and missed. The one who'd rather form his own opinions of someone and not buy into town gossip.

"Not once." She answered with raised eyebrows before she sighed, "I don't know him as well as you, but something just isn't right."

"Which is why I'm about to sneak into his house." Cory nodded.

"Remember just see what he's hiding, if you do end up seeing Ian just get the hell out of there, do not confront him." Spencer reminded her as she shifted and a twig broke under her weight.

Both girls ducked down farther and stared at each other wide eyed.

"Who's that… Melissa?" Jason called out.

Taking a deep breath Spencer stood up and walked into sight as she said, "Uh, no… hi, it's Spencer."

"Hi." Jason responded in a slightly gruff voice.

"Why would you think I was Melissa? Has she been coming over a lot?"

"A couple times… mailman keeps giving you guys my stuff." He admitted, and Cory took them talking as her cue to get inside of the house as she slipped back through the trees before running through the yard out of sight and making her way up to the porch. Just as she started to open the door Spencer sent her a text saying to abort the mission, Jason was headed inside.

Gasping she pulled the door shut and turned to run, but she'd only made it down the steps when Jason spotted her and greeted, "Hey… what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just coming to see… Toby." She lied, then cringed as she looked down to the ground. That was the best excuse she could come up with?

"Popular guy today, Spencer's around the side of the house talking to him now." Jason explained watching her as she fidgeted with the sleeve on her shirt and nervously looked around.

"You okay?" He questioned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She offered a smile to sell the lie as she said, "I'm just going to go find Toby then…"

He nodded and watched as she walked past him, then offered, "I was going to grab something to drink… want anything?"

"No thanks, I don't really drink anymore." She answered quickly with the same thing she'd been telling people at parties ever since she got out of rehab. It wasn't that she was an alcoholic and one drink would throw her off the wagon, it was more a matter of she tended to use it as a crutch –and once she started drinking it was impossible to stop.

Looking down he held back a laugh before pointed out with raised eyebrows, "I meant like a coke… or water."

Cory looked down and laughed as she felt her cheeks darken and started to apologize, "I should have known that, I'm sorry it's just-"

"It's alright, I get it." He assured her, lingering for a moment before turning and disappearing into the house.

Blowing out the breath she'd been holding, Cory raced over to her friends and Toby gave her a friendly smile as he asked, "You come to try and talk me out of working here too?"

"No… I don't think you should quit. You need a job and Jason needs help building the fence, it works out, right?" She shrugged and Spencer scowled at her. In her mind this was the worst thing to happen –her boyfriend working for a guy she didn't trust, in the yard of the house she was sure Ian was staying in.

"He's really not bad, kind of quiet but I am too." Toby nodded.

"Ugh!" Spencer groaned, "You guys can bond over your feelings for Jason later, right now… we should probably get out of here." She said to Cory, then looked at Toby, "And you should come with us."

Jason walked back out of the house carrying a trash bag with him, pausing on the steps of the porch when he saw the trio standing close and appearing to be deep in conversation.

He wasn't sure what was going on, but he had a feeling Cory hadn't shown up to talk to Toby. But whatever she was doing there, she clearly didn't want to tell him about it.

"I'd invite you guys in, but the place is kind of crazy." Jason called out, getting their attention as he dropped the heavy bag down onto the pile of trash by the mailbox and looked up to them.

His attention was drawn back to the ground when he saw all of them staring down and he realized the bag had busted open, littering the immediate area with bloody gauze and bandages, along with several empty boxes of Chinese take-out.

With a laugh he reasoned, "Cut myself…" He knelt down and started to pick up his mess as toby shrugged and got back to work digging the next hole for a fencepost.

**~()~**

It was later that night, Hanna, Aria and Cory met at Spencer's to follow Melissa if she left the barn to go anywhere.

Spencer and Cory filled them in on what happened earlier when they'd gone over to see Toby and since then Spencer had found and pawned her sister's wedding ring for money to get Toby the truck he'd been looking at. She was willing to do anything to get him to stop working for Jason.

Aria was in the same class at Hollis that Jenna was taking and that day she'd messed up and talked too much and the blind teenager figured out who she was, she'd been using the name Anita to conceal her identity.

"Wait… who's Anita?" Hanna questioned, not entirely following the story.

"No one, it was me… I was, okay? I only said that was my name because I didn't want Jenna to know I was there." Aria explained for the second time.

"Yeah, but she did know." Hanna argued.

Spencer shook her head as she stood at her bedroom window and kept an eye outside to see when Melissa left.

"Well yeah, but only after I said something. I thought I was safe."

"Uh, hello? We're the reason she's blind… of course she's going to have our voices locked in her memory." Cory pointed out and spencer nodded, "Yeah Anita was safe… not Aria."

"I feel like I just made things worse. If Jenna really is A, I totally rattled her cage."

Gasping Spencer, jumped out of view from the window and said, "Guys… she's on the move."

Nodding her friends got up and they all scrambled out of the house and following behind her until she got to the raod and they could hide behind some trees and bushes.

They saw Melissa going to a car that they thought for sure Ian was driving, that was until the driver's door opened and someone else stepped out.

"Is that Wren?" Aria whispered.

"Wren?" Spencer gasped, shocked to see It really was him.

"Oh my god… was there some sort of town meeting where they voted to all help Melissa aid her murdering husband?" Cory whisper-yelled at her friends.

"I can't believe he's in on this too." Spencer admitted.

"What's he giving her?" Aria questioned seeing him getting a bag out of his trunk and handing it to Melissa.

"Probably painkillers." Spencer reasoned and Cory nodded. Hanna, however, didn't understand why as she asked, "Melissa does drugs?"

"No! They're probably for Ian." Cory answered and Spencer said, "You fall from a bell tower and you're gonna need more than an ice-pack."

Forgetting they were trying to hide and stay quiet Hanna scoffed, "Wow, only Melissa would ask the guy she dumped to help the murderer she married."

Her friends promptly shushed her and they all had to duck out of sight when Wren and Melissa looked over in their direction, moments later the car sped off and Melissa remained in the street checking over the bag she'd been given.

"She does not look happy." Hanna whispered her observance.

**~(The next day)~**

"Hey, did you drive to school?" Cory asked as she met Aria at her locker.

"Yeah." She answered, looking around to make sure her mom wasn't near. Since taking over Ezra's teaching spot at the high school her mom had taken it upon her self to make sure the group of friend's didn't associate at school either.

"Could you give me a ride home?" Cory asked.

"Still freaked out about the car thing?"

"You mean that someone in a dark car with blacked out windows is stalking me… yeah, terrified is more like it."

"It has to be A… but it just doesn't seem like something they'd do." Aria said, her expression full of concern about her friend's safety.

Cory nodded, those were the same thought's she'd been having since the night it happened.

"Yeah, I'll drive you home –as long as you don't mind making a stop along the way, my mom's sending me to the park to give Mike his keys he forgot this morning. He normally plays there with some of his friends after school." Aria explained and Cory nodded, "Sure, I don't mind."

When they reached the park and got out of the car, they looked around but didn't see Aria's brother anywhere.

"Is that him?" Cory asked, nodding to someone sitting on a bench with a towel around his neck, from the back he could be Aria's brother.

But when the friends got closer and he turned around, it was clear he wasn't who they were looking for.

Aria took out her phone and tried to call him again, but Cory was no longer in search of her friend's brother when she spotted Jason who saw her at the same time. He paused to give her a questioning look wondering what she was doing there and she couldn't help but stare back at him.

He was shirtless, with a pair of gray basketball shorts hanging dangerously low. His tanned skin glistened with sweat in the harsh midday lighting and it took every ounce of strength she had to look away as she asked Aria, "Did you get a hold of him?"

"No, he's not answering." She sighed, then glanced over to see Jason watching her friend as she smiled and leaned in some, "Looks like you've got an admirer."

"What? You're not going to chastise me for talking to him like everyone else is doing?" She whispered back.

Aria sighed, "No, he's not exactly my favorite person in the world… and he is sort of creepy, but I see the way he's looking at you and I've noticed the smile you get when you talk about him-"

"I do not." she cut in with a defense, but Aria laughed it away, "Oh, you do!"

"I think sometimes everyone just judges people too quickly… like before you moved back and we were all convinced that Toby was the one who killed Ali when he was completely innocent. Jason's kind of weird, but that doesn't make him a bad guy." She reasoned, causing Cory to smile as she assured her, "He's not."

Looking over Aria saw he was still watching her friend and she turned back to her as she admitted, "The way you talked about him, sounds like you really, really liked him. I don't think I said this before, but I'm really sorry you felt like you couldn't tell us about Jason before."

Cory smiled warmly at her, thankful to see one of her friends was being understanding, it meant a lot more to her than Aria knew.

"Ooh, there's Lewis… he's on the lacrosse team with my brother." Aria said when she spotted a familiar face, and rushed after him hoping he'd be able to tell her where she could find her missing younger brother.

Cory watched them, until she saw a stray basketball bounce by her and she leaned down to pick up. Turning around she looked around wondering who to toss it to until Jason walked up to her.

"Hey…" She breathed, as she held out the ball for him to take.

"Hey." He greeted, back taking the basketball as he nodded in thanks.

"Have you seen Aria's brother, Mike? We can't find him." She blurted out, not entirely sure what else to say.

"No, sorry." He apologized, looking around before he questioned, "He give you guys the slip?"

"Something like that." She nodded with a small laugh.

"I was always lying about where I was when I was his age." He reasoned with a shrug and Cory nodded, thinking she was still lying her dad about where she was, but not because of drugs or drinking –she was having to sneak around to see her best friends.

"We, uh, we really haven't had a chance to catch up since I moved back." He pointed out, and she cocked her head to the side wondering what he was getting at.

"Maybe you'd want to? We could get dinner or something."

Biting down on her bottom lip and fighting a smile she asked, "Like a date…"

He watched her, slightly squinting in the sun as he said, "We never really got to do much of that before, right? Or do I just not remember it?"

Shaking her head she replied, "Nope… the parties definitely don't count as dates and neither did sitting in your room and getting high."

"So is that a yes?" He asked, with one of his smiles that made her knees feel like all the bones had turned to mush.

Cory hesitated, they were both clean and sober now so it wasn't like spending more time together would push either of them into old habits. But she'd planned on not getting involved with anyone since she moved back, especially after A started in on her –but she also hadn't planned on Jason moving back either. And they kept bumping into each other all over town; she considered maybe it was fate… or the less romantic way of looking at it as a small town with only so many places to go. Either way, she missed him.

"Yeah." She finally agreed, after such a long pause that he was starting to think she was conjuring up a polite way to let him down. He was pretty sure the last several minutes the hot sun rays beating down on him wasn't the cause of the sweat he wiped from his forehead as he smiled at her.

He'd been surprised when he found out she'd moved back to Rosewood, but it was a good surprise. Especially when he saw she was doing a lot better too. In a lot of ways they were different people now, but he still felt the same connection with her and had missed her over the past year.

"I'll, uh… I'll give you my number?" She offered shaking him from his thoughts as he nodded and said, "I'll get my phone."

She followed him over to where his shirt was laying on a bench off to the side of the pavement court, where he'd hid his phone under it.

After exchanging numbers, she tucked her hair behind her ear and quietly asked, "Did you… uh, did you come to see me when I was in the hospital?"

Laying his phone and shirt back down on the bench he glanced at her as he admitted, "It was just a few days after I moved back… I picked up a newspaper and on the front cover was a picture of you on the ground with your friends around outside of the church. I didn't know what was going on or how badly you were hurt."

"Not really all that bad." She explained, "I was in a car accident and ended up with some bruised ribs… I collapsed outside of the church after the Ian thing from a panic attack, of all things." She shook her head at herself, slightly embarrassed with the admission then looked up as she questioned, "Why didn't you stick around, I was waking up right as you left…"

"I honestly didn't know if you'd want to see me. Part of why I snuck in there at night, figured you'd be asleep but I just wanted to make sure you were okay." He explained.

"Part of it?" She questioned with raised eyebrows, wanting the whole story from him; which he gave her when he continued to explain, "Yeah, the other part was that I knew people were already saying things about you around town, and I didn't want to make it worse by people seeing me coming to visit you. Half the town still thinks I had something to do with what happened to my sister."

She nodded in understanding. The residents of Rosewood were less than forgiving people and never seemed to let rumors die, not matter how old or painful.

"Well, you know rumors are going to start flying when we're spotted out in public together…" Cory pointed out, thinking of how much crap Spencer got in the hallways at school after people found out she was dating Toby Cavanaugh.

He nodded, tilting his head to the side and watching her closely as he asked, "Think you can handle that?"

"Well…" She breathed, smiling to herself as she remembered one of their first conversations when he'd told her something rather fitting for this moment, "This guy I used know once told me that the people in Rosewood aren't ever going to change… you either have to conform or get used to them talking about you."

Their eyes locked as he remembered the conversation she was bringing up, it was a talk they'd had moments before he'd kissed her for the first time.

"He's not here, ready to go?" Aria announced walking up to them as she offered Jason a friendly smile and looked at Cory.

"Yeah." Cory nodded, glancing back to Jason as she said, "So I guess I'll see you later?"

With a smile he picked the basketball up from the bench and said, "Yeah, I'll call you."

As they turned to leave Aria asked, "He'll call you? So this means there was an exchange of numbers?"

"That's typically what happens before a… date."

They stopped by the car and Aria faced her as she admitted, "I'm happy if you're happy… but just be careful, I may not dislike him as much as our friends… but they have a reason to feel the way they do."

"I know." Cory nodded as she got into the car with her and glanced back to the basketball court just before her friend drove away.

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><p><strong>AN - thanks for reading, I really hope you guys all liked the chapter!**

**Don't forget to follow me on Tumblr where I post a lot of fanfiction related content to go along with my stories, the link is up on my profile. ^_^**

**I owe a huge thank you to Momsen-xxxx, RHatch89, Cassie-D1, xxxRena, WolfsLullaby, DancingDorisDay, SmellYourScentForMiles, Guest, BloomingBlueMoon85, Lucy Greenhill, jk522, guest, Heartless-Princess33, gues, guest, EmisonLovr4life, EllieWellyBear, The truth never set me free, Nirvana14, guest and Nicole1024 for reviewing the last chapter.**


	11. Dart for My Sweetheart

**Whispers in the Dark**

**- Chapter Eleven – Dart for My Sweetheart  
><strong>

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><p>"Dad?" Cory called out as she walked into her house and dropped her bags just inside of the door, looking around frantically until she heard her dad call out to her from upstairs.<p>

She took the steps two at a time, hoping he was okay. When Aria had dropped her off after they'd stopped by the park, she'd spotted a police car in the driveway.

"Dad, are you okay?" She yelled, rushing towards his bedroom but stopped when she saw her dad standing in her own bedroom.

Walking inside her forehead lined with confusion as she saw Garret, dressed in his police uniform standing with her dad amongst the contents of her desk drawers, dresser and even some clothes pulled form her closet.

"Cory…" Her dad said as he walked over and said, "It looks like someone broke in today."

"What?" She gasped, her hazel eyes as big as saucers when she looked around her disheveled destroyed room.

Her gaze flicked over to Garret as she asked, "Do you know who it was?"

"No." He answered, then looked around as she said, "The strange thing is the valuables… your computer and other electronics are still here, just out in the open."

She looked over to see her laptop sitting undisturbed on top of her desk, her TV was still in place as well. Walking over to her vanity, she flipped open her jewelry box and saw everything appeared to be there.

"Does anything appear to be missing?" Austin asked his daughter.

"No… I don't think so." She admitted, then asked, "What about your room? What did they take?"

"That's the thing…" Garret explained looking around, "The only room in the house that seems to have been gone through was your room."

"That makes no sense." She breathed, feeling almost the same level of violation she felt when she saw the videos on the flash drive they'd found in Alison's storage unit. Someone had invaded her space, went through her room, rifled through her desk and underwear drawer.

"Your dad also mentioned you've been receiving calls where the individual on the other line keeps hanging up." Garret said, before asking, "Since nothing's missing, it looks like maybe this was just a scare tactic… can you think of anyone who'd do this?"

Cory opened her mouth to say she didn't have a clue, when she gasped, seeing a display of flowers on her bedside table that wasn't there before she left for school that morning.

"What?" Her dad asked looking around.

"I just don't know why anyone would want to do this, is all." She lied, seeing the note sticking out of the flowers wanting her dad and Garret out of the room, so she could read it. Even though she already had a pretty good idea that it was A's doing.

Garret explained that there wasn't much that could be done at this point, but they should consider installing a security system and while Cory cleaned her room she needed to let them know if she did notice anything missing.

Nodding she thanked him and stood still as she waited for them to leave her room. Once she was alone she walked over and picked up the small envelope from it's holder in the flower arrangement. With shaky fingers she opened it see a simple note, typed in elegant font that read, _'Miss Me?'_

Dropping to sit down on the side of her bed, she read those two words over and over, growing more confused each time the note didn't end with 'A'. if it wasn't A who broke into her house and destroyed her room, then it was a chance it wasn't A behind the wheel of the car that had been following her –which lead into the huge possibility that it also wasn't A who'd been calling and hanging up.

If it wasn't A… who was it?

Swallowing hard, she flipped the note card over in her hand, but it was blank. She even went as far as to rip open the tiny envelope; looking for any clues, or hidden sign revealing who it was from.

When there wasn't one she walked into her bathroom with the flowers and grabbed the trashcan from under the sink, sitting on the side of her bathtub she pulled the trash over to her and started to pick through the arrangement, removing the flowers one by one and even sifting through the potting soil when she poured it out. But there was no other note, nothing painted on the short, wide mouth vase the arrangement was in.

"Cory?" Austin asked, getting her attention as he stood in the doorway watching her with a concerned expression.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She lied, giving him a wide smile, but he nodded to her dirt covered hands and asked, "Who gave you those flowers?"

"Just a friend." She added on the lie as she shivered and said, "I thought I saw a bug in the flowers so I was throwing them all out."

"Cory, are you sure you don't have any idea who might have done this?

"I honestly don't know, dad. I'm sorry."

"If someone's threatening you… or there's a reason you're afraid to-"

"No." she dismissed, "No one's hassling me or anything. I'm going to start cleaning things up, if I notice anything missing I'll let you know so you can tell the police."

"Want some help?" He offered, still feeling like he wasn't getting the entire story from her.

She declined the offer and waited until he was gone, before she stood up and got to work washing the dirt off of her hands, still no closer to figuring out who was responsible for any of it.

**~(The next night)~**

Cory rushed out of her house when Spencer texted that she was outside, getting in the passenger seat beside her she said, "Wren knows where Ian is?"

"He's about to find out… we all just need to be ready. Hanna and Aria are at Emily's." Spencer explained as she sped off towards Emily's house.

Once they were all in the car, Spencer explained how she'd gotten Wren to lie to Melissa and say he was concerned that Ian might have a staph infection and refused to give her anymore meds until he could take a look at Ian for himself.

They'd been parked on the side of Spencer's street waiting for word from Wren for several minutes when Spencer's cellphone finally went off. Everyone held their breath as she pulled it from her pocket and looked at it.

"It's him." She said, and everyone ducked down as a car pulled out of Spencer's driveway and Spencer started her own car up to follow them.

"Do we have a plan?" Hanna questioned from the back.

"Working on it." Spencer said.

Emily brought up that maybe they should call Garrett for help, but no one else wanted to involve him anymore than he already was. Cory was only half listening to their conversation when her own phone went off.

"Who is it?" Spencer asked, glancing over for a moment before snapping her gaze back to the road and the car in front of her.

"Uh, just my dad." She lied, as she quickly texted Jason back.

He'd asked her earlier that day if she wanted to get dinner or something, and as much as she wanted to she knew today was the day they were supposed to find Ian. She had to turn him down, only he could tell by the tone of her voice that something was wrong –which she had to deny, because she couldn't exactly say she was trying to track Ian down.

"I'm just saying maybe it would be a good idea to call Garret." Emily pushed.

"No, it's really not, Em. The last thing he needs is for us to get him involved in another mystery that we can't explain." Aria pointed out, eyeing Cory as she spoke because she had a pretty good idea who'd texted her friend, and doubted it was her dad.

"That's what happens when you're the girls who cried wolf." Hanna sighed, "Don't you guys get it? We're screwed."

Taking a deep breath Cory pushed some of her wavy brunet hair out of her face and was about to tell her friends that the day before someone had broken into her house, but just as she opened her mouth Aria gasped, "They're stopping."

Slowing way down so Melissa wouldn't notice the car following them, Spencer shut the lights off and edged forward as they watched Wren and Melissa get out of the car and climb between two chained gates outside of an old barn that looked like it had been abandoned for thirty years or more.

"There's no turning back now, right?" Spencer breathed as all five friend's exited the car and stood near the gate.

"We've come this far… we need to see it out." Cory nodded, trying to mentally prepare herself for what they might find when they went inside.

They all walked through the trees with low hanging branches until they came to a crossable part of the fence, just out of sight from where Wren and Melissa were outside of the barn.

"I've got 911 on speed-dial." Aria whispered, ducking under a branch as she spoke.

"I've only got one bar." Hanna cautioned, and Cory took her own phone out and admitted, "That's one more than I've got." She frowned.

Hanna started to say something then groaned, "Oh crap, no bars for me either."

"We should take a photo of Ian; prove we haven't been making this all up."

"Yeah, good idea, Spence." Cory nodded, "But I think we shouldn't let him out of our sight until the police get here… he managed to get away once before… I wouldn't put it past him to do it again."

"Yeah well you go ahead and do that… I'm just going to try not to get killed." Hanna groaned, nearly stumbling over a raised tree root.

"I'm just worried about Melissa; we have no idea what Ian's thinking." Spencer expressed her concern for her older sister and Aria fearfully gasped, "What if he has a gun?"

When they all stopped and looked at her she shrugged, "He's the bad guy, right? Don't they always have a gun?"

Nodding Emily said, "And you say I need to lay off the horror movies."

Seconds later a loud, blood curdling scream cut the stillness of the night and Spencer yelled, "Melissa!" as she ducked through the fence with her friends right behind her.

They'd expected to get inside and see Ian trying to hurt her, they never expected to find him dead. His skin, gray and leathery looking with a gun in his hand and note on the ground beside him.

Melissa's loud painful sobs echoed in the old, wooden structure as Wren held onto her until she spotted her sister as Spencer pulled her in for a hug, trying to comfort her.

Cory swallowed hard staring at Ian's body and covering her nose with her sleeve, it was clear Ian had been dead for quite some time with the stench in the air.

"I need to get her outside." Spencer told her friends as she nodded for Wren to help her. Aria choked back her dinner as she covered her nose and mouth as she said, "I'll call the police."

Emily, Hanna and Cory continued to stand in place where they were until Emily whispered, "He's been dead for a while."

"more than a while." Hanna stated, her nose wrinkled in disgust.

When Cory walked closer Emily grabbed her arm and gasped, "What are you doing?"

"I'm taking a picture of that note… once the police get here it's going into evidence and we'll never see it again." She explained, holding her breath as she snapped a few pictures of the note before she and her friends all went outside to find Melissa still crying hysterically as she clutched onto Spencer.

**~()~**

Cory sat at a table outside of the school with her friends as they looked down to the suicide note picture that Cory had loaded onto her tablet.

"Is this a suicide note or a confession?" Aria breathed, reading it over for the tenth time.

"It's both…" Spencer said.

"It's just weird…" Emily admitted, "Why would Ian kill himself right as he was about to skip town with Melissa?"

"Maybe he knew he was going to get caught… he couldn't hide forever. Even with Melissa and Wren's help." Spencer pointed out, thinking to how her sister had barely said a word since the night they'd found Ian's body.

"He was desperate." Aria whisper yelled at them.

Taking a drink of her coffee, Hanna shrugged, "Who cares, the important thing is that Ali's killer is dead and we're no longer people of interest."

"Right." Cory agreed, "The only decent thing he ever did was write that note admitting what he'd done so it clears us."

"Then why am I not feeling relieved right now?" Emily quietly asked still feeling in her stomach that something was wrong.

Aria sighed, "Oh come on, Em. For months we've been about as welcome in this town as a cold store. Plus people know we were telling the truth, and Ian's out of our lives for good."

"Yes, but A isn't." Emily argued with them and Cory hung her head, wishing her friend would just enjoy the small victory they'd gotten.

"Can we just slay one dragon at a time, please." Spencer breathed, shooting Cory a strange look when she scrambled to grab her tablet from the middle of the table and darken the screen.

She nodded to the side where everyone looked to see Garrett headed for them.

"Hey… what are you doing here?" Spencer questioned him.

"Came to return some evidence we took from the field hockey office." He said looking around the table, his eyes stopping on Cory as she held the tablet close and avoided his eyes, looking back to the rest of the group he said, "Hey, um, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry you all had to be ones who found him."

"Melissa's the one who found him." Spencer corrected.

"I'm sorry, then again could have been worse."

"What do you mean?" Aria questioned, leaning forward to look at him around Spencer.

"Body's decay put him at about a week, he'd been dead for that long at least." He said, before nodding and turning to leave.

Cory tucked the tablet in her purse and remained quiet, she wasn't sure what it was, but she just felt like there was something she couldn't trust about Garrett.

"A week?" Emily gasped.

"No, that's impossible… he was texting Melissa ." Hanna argued and Emily shook her head, thinking this is exactly why she didn't feel any better with Ian being dead, she said, "No, he wasn't. I'm betting it was A."

"But why would A pretend to be Ian and then just lead us there to his body?" Aria asked but no one had an answer for her.

"It doesn't matter, the guy was scum and now he's dead scum. Who cares if A found him first?" Spencer asked.

"Guys, I don't know… I'm sort of with Emily now. Something just isn't right about this, A only gives so they can take twice as much. What does A want here?" Cory quietly said, looking around and thinking back to the car that had been following her and her destroyed room.

"You know what I want? I want to enjoy life again… before A finds another way to ruin it." Hanna said as she grabbed her coffee and stood up, walking away with Aria as Spencer asked, "You guys coming?"

"No." Emily said, deep in thought as she continued, "We now know A is involved, doesn't that make you nervous?"

"Yeah, but not as much as Ian did." Spencer said as she stood up and walked away.

Cory and Emily exchanged looks as they slowly started to gather their own bags to get to class until Emily got a text.

"Oh my god…" She breathed, showing the phone to Cory who gasped when she read the message:

'_Hey Em... is it just me or does that suicide note look familiar? -A'_

"What does that even mean?" Cory asked and Emily shrugged before she whispered, "Can you email me a copy of Ian's suicide letter?"

"Sure." She agreed.

**~()~**

"Who was that?" Cory questioned as she walked into the kitchen to see her dad ending a phone call.

"Veronica." He said as he laid the portable phone down on the counter and turned to face her.

"Spencer's mom? What did she want?" Cory questioned opening the refrigerator and trying to figure out what she wanted for a snack during her break from homework.

"Apparently they've decided to give Ian Thomas a funeral… and she was calling to invite us, she thinks it would be good for you girls to be there in support of Spencer." He explained shaking his head like he couldn't believe it.

"We're allowed to talk again?" Cory sarcastically gasped as she grabbed a bag of apple slices off the shelf and walked over to the cabinet to grab a plate.

"I'm sorry." Austin apologized, a look of sincerity in his eyes, "I should have believed you and your friends… I know you well enough to know you'd never make something like that up."

"They say hindsight's 20/20." She muttered, getting the jar of peanut butter down from another cabinet.

Reaching over to the drawer beside him, he got her a spoon and held it out as he said, "I mean it. I never should have gone along with the idea to separate you from your friends. I thought maybe they were coercing you into going along with this Ian story but-"

Taking the spoon from him she sighed, "That's because it's always been easier for you to blame other people for the things I do wrong."

"You didn't do anything wrong." He assured her, "I see that now, and Cory I promise I'm going to start trusting you more."

With a smirk she gathered up her dish of apple slices and peanut butter as she said, "That's really good to hear… but something pretty good came out of me spending time apart from my friends."

"Oh yeah? You find a new hobby?"

"No, but you were talking about how I should branch out and make new friends, so I reconnected with someone I hadn't spoken to in a while." She explained, pausing in the doorway to the kitchen as her dad's forehead lined with confusion and he asked, "Who?"

"Jason." She admitted, before quickly walking out into the hallway, but he followed her.

"Jason DiLaurentis?"

"Mhmm." She hummed, walking into the dining room where she had her books for homework out on the large cherry oak table.

"No." He stated.

"You can't just tell me no."

"I can and I am. Cory, I meant branch out and meet new_ girl _friends, hell even start dating a guy at your school –any of that I would be happy about. But this is just unacceptable-" He said, his voice growing louder with every word.

Turning to face him she crossed her arms over her chest as she yelled back, "I thought you said you were going to trust me more, so trust me on this."

"Cory, you made a deal with me when we moved away from Rosewood that you'd never contact him again? Remember the deal; you'd willingly go to rehab and never talk to him again –and in return your mother and I wouldn't call the police on him… he was way too old for you then and he's too old for you now." He reminded her of the deal she'd made when they left Rosewood, a deal she'd only agreed to so that Jason wouldn't get into trouble.

"He's not all that older than me… can you honestly say if it was another guy his age, you'd be freaking out like this?"

"I certainly wouldn't like it." He said through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, but you wouldn't be shouting at me either!" She yelled back causing her dad to sigh heavily as he rubbed his eyes and in a calmer tone said, "I'm not shouting at you."

Cory shook her head, equally angered and stressed out.

"Dad, you don't even know him and he's different now… he's grown up a lot and he's clean-"

"Good for him, but that has nothing to do with you. You're not seeing him and that's final." Austin asserted, giving her a look to show he wasn't going to cave at all on this.

"Dad..." She helplessly breathed with tears stinging her eyes from him not even willing to listen to her at all on this. She'd expected him to be mad, but she'd hoped that after everything –that with as far as she'd come; he'd at least consider letting Jason come over for dinner to see how much he'd changed. But that clearly wasn't going to happen.

Not even willing to stay on the subject he cleared his throat and tried to calm down as he asked, "What should I tell Spencer's parents? Are we going to Ian's funeral… if you don't want to, you don't have to."

"I want to go." She whispered, sitting down at the table and putting her back to him as she pushed her plate of food to the side and grabbed her English book to finish up her assignment.

"Why would you possibly want to?" He questioned, not sure about her reasoning.

"Because he killed Ali. If they'd let me bury the casket I would."

He nodded, hoping maybe seeing her friend's killer lowered into the ground would give her some sort of closure, help her move on from the devastating loss she'd been through.

"I know you're not happy about not being able to see Jason but-"

Rolling her eyes she snapped, "Can you just leave me alone? I need to finish this paper –Aria's mom took over my English class and she's not as lenient with due dates as Mr. Fitz was."

He nodded, pausing in the doorway to watch her for a little longer before disappearing back into the hallway to call Spencer's mom and say they'd be attending Ian's funeral.

* * *

><p><strong>AN- Thanks for reading guys ^_^ I hope you all liked the chapter.**

**I appreciate all of the follows and favorites so much, and I owe a huge thanks to xxxRena, Cassie-D1. Heartless-Princess33, RHatch89, Momsen-xxxx, SmellYourScentForMiles, EmisonLovr4life, guest, PortiaWhite, Lucy Greenhill, Emmettluver2010, DancingDorisDay, Gleemania123, Guest and kksambo for reviewing chapter 10.**


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